Disgusting ingredient in American chocolate that explains why foreigners hate our sweets

Ask anyone not from the US and they’ll tell you of the disgust they experience when biting into American chocolate.

While chocolate products like a Hershey’s bar are a staple in a candy aisle, with more than 373million produced each year, consumers from Europe and the UK can barely stomach the product due to one gross ingredient – butyric acid, a compound found in human vomit.

The component isn’t listed on the ingredients label but the sour taste some experience when eating a milk chocolate bar is commonly attributed to butyric acid, which is a fatty acid naturally found in milk, butter, parmesan cheese and sauerkraut.

It’s sometimes added to food as a preservative, and in the body, it gives vomit its distinctive smell.

Companies don’t deliberately add it to products, but it is produced through a process called lipolysis, which occurs during manufacturing. This is when the fats in milk break down, producing butyric acid and giving chocolates their tangy taste. 

But while Americans may be used to the flavor, Europeans and Brits say they especially taste it in products made by Hershey’s, which says the acidic component is a natural effect of the use of fresh dairy milk in production.

Message boards where people from all over the world compare tastes of popular foods in different countries agree: ‘Most chocolate in America is overloaded with sugar,’ and, ‘I won’t touch US chocolate after living many years in Europe.’

One American told DailyMail.com: ‘Last time I was in London, I ate a literal 1lb bar of Cadbury, but it’s disgusting in America.’

Dr Bryan Quoc Le, a food scientist, told DailyMail.com: ‘Hershey’s uses a proprietary process in which milk fat is broken down either using an enzyme or by a chemical process [which] releases butyric acid.’ 

But some food scientists also say there’s more than butyric acid to blame for the taste differences.

The original recipe

Hershey’s debuted in 1900 and now offers a wealth of chocolate options. Hershey and Mars – the company behind Snickers, M&Ms, and Twix – dominate the chocolate field.

Hershey’s is notoriously tight-lipped about its chocolate formula, making the presence of butyric acid elusive.

But its origin was rooted in practicality. 

Milton Hershey wanted to make a chocolate bar that wouldn’t easily melt. He learned he could improve the chocolate’s stability by almost – but not quite – spoiling the milk used to make it. 

He would allow the milk to get slightly warm, encouraging bacteria to convert the lactose in the milk into lactic acid, which increased the acidity of the milk without spoiling it. 

Then, he heated the milk and while it was fermenting, lipase enzymes were breaking down the fat into fatty acids, one of them being butyric acid. 

This method produced milk chocolate with a slight tang. 

Dr Le told DailyMail.com: ‘That issue was fixed when the cold supply chain was established, however, customers complained that the chocolate did not taste the same. 

‘So the Hershey’s company had to reformulate their chocolate production process by including a lipolysis step to accommodate for what was once considered a manufacturing defect.’

The lipolysis process is what produces butyric acid.

Milk it for all it’s worth

Another factor in the taste variation is the difference in the taste of milk based on geography.  

The milk used at the Hershey factory tastes different from the milk used in Cadbury’s UK factory and Godiva’s facility in Belgium. This is because of the different countries’ climates and the conditions in which cows are raised and milk is produced.

Sarah Bond, a food scientist with expertise in why people like certain food textures, told DailyMail.com: ‘There are differences in what the cows are eating and how they’re living, and how that can create different types of milk. 

‘And the European standards for the animal industry in general tend to be more tightly controlled in terms of quality.’ 

American cows are often treated with a lab-made growth hormone called rBST to increase milk production. 

But the EU banned the use of the hormone in 1999 out of concern cows were more likely to limp and have mobility problems, inflamed udders, and reactions at the spot where they’re injected. 

Pasteurization practices differ as well. 

In America, milk producers use a high temperature, short duration approach to pasteurization, which involves heating milk to about 161 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds to kill harmful bacteria. 

European farmers, meanwhile, heat milk to about 275 degrees Fahrenheit for a few seconds, sterilizing it completely. This allows it to be shelf-stable for months without refrigeration if unopened.

This ultra-high temperature pasteurization causes chemical changes in the milk that alter the flavor, giving it a slightly caramelized taste. 

Setting the bar 

It’s no mystery why European chocolate has a creamier texture than a lot of American varieties on the market.

Ms Bond said: ‘Europe has a higher standard for what needs to be included in chocolate.’ 

Standards set by the European Commission require chocolate to have a higher fat content, requiring at least 3.5 percent milk fat – the component that gives chocolate its buttery texture. 

The UK government has the same requirement.  

American chocolate, meanwhile, is only required to have 3.39 percent milkfat.

That seemingly minor discrepancy makes a noticeable difference when you bite into a Hershey bar stateside compared to the one you brought back from your trip abroad. 

Similarly, European chocolate has to have a minimum of 18 percent milk solids – the proteins, lactose and minerals that enhance chocolate’s sweet and creamy flavor. 

UK chocolate must contain at least 14 percent dry milk solids compared to the US requirement of 12 percent. 

Dr Le said: ‘Any fat helps to coat and lubricate the remaining solids in the chocolate. The chalky taste and texture [of some American chocolate] mostly comes from milk proteins and the remaining lactose in the milk solids. These can form particles that contribute to those issues.

‘As the fat content increases, these particles become less adhered to one another and create a smoother texture while masking a significant portion of the taste.’ 

Additionally, in the EU, milk chocolate must contain at least 30 percent cocoa; in the UK, it’s 25 percent. US chocolate, though, is required to contain just 10 percent cocoa.

Because a higher portion of EU and UK products are made up of cocoa, manufacturers there are more likely to choose a high-quality supply, further enhancing flavor.

The lower amount of cocoa in US products translates to a different taste and texture that is most noticeable to customers in Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, which many people say has a ‘chalky’ texture.

Chocolate makers abroad achieve the creamy texture Brits and Europeans love by using more cocoa butter than sugar. But in the US, the American mouth has become more accustomed to sweeter tastes.

From bean to bonbon

The journey from cacao plant to chocolate bar is a long one, and the type of processing used makes a measurable difference.

After it’s harvested, the cacao is fermented to remove the sticky white pulp around the raw cacao beans. The beans are then dried and roasted, leaving them with bitter cacao nibs ground into a thick paste called chocolate liquor – though there is no alcohol in it.

Jessica Gavin, a food scientist and recipe developer, told DailyMail.com: ‘The source of the beans also affects the taste. So in Europe, if a specific chocolatier says this is our taste profile, they’ll source their beans from a specific place.

‘We [the US] get ours primarily from South America while European chocolatiers primarily use beans from West Africa.’ 

Chocolate makers separate that liquor into cocoa butter and cocoa solids – the dry, non-fat part that is processed into cocoa powder.

The cocoa butter and cocoa solids are combined with sugar, milk, and additional cocoa butter, then ground together until there is a smooth texture.  

Then, the chocolate mixture is conched, which involves continuous mixing and aerating for several hours to improve texture and flavor. 

Ms Gavin said: ‘A lot of times European chocolatiers do longer conching, a longer refining process, so they get a smaller particle. You’ll notice a texture difference between chalky and melts in your mouth.’ 

The chocolate is carefully cooled and then slowly reheated while being stirred to ensure the cocoa butter crystals form in the right structure. 

The tempered chocolate is poured into molds to form bars or other shapes, then cooled and solidified. 

From there, the chocolate is sealed for freshness in eye-catching packaging and sent out to distributors all over the world to line supermarket and convenience store shelves. 

Most non-Americans conflate Hershey’s chocolate with any chocolate made in America, and easily discount all of it. 

But as the second-largest chocolate market in the world (behind China), the US is rich in options for even the pickiest European.   

Ms Bond said: ‘There’s a lot of things, like the fermenting the cocoa beans, how long that happens, how you add the milk, all of that can have huge impacts on flavor.  

‘These are small differences, but it can make a pretty big difference overall in the way that the chocolate tastes and feels in your mouth when you eat it.’