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The latter 19th century continued to see improvements in machines that made the taste and quality of chocolate better, as it allowed creamy and rich chocolate to be made that left no aftertaste. With the increasing popularity of chocolate, the rise of fraudulent chocolate or imitation products emerged. European countries soon moved to create food standards and guidelines that protected chocolate and its quality so that imitation products could not be falsely advertised. At the same time, prices of cocoa began to drop dramatically in the 1890s and 1900s. This now meant that chocolate could be purchased by a much wider middle class. Production also began to shift away from the New World and production increased of cocoa in Asia and Africa. This helped to depress the price of cocoa for growers, but enabled it to be a mass consumptive product at even greater levels.
In the 1910s, many well known European brands began to be established, including Godiva, La Maison du Chocolat and Fauchon in France, Lindt, Suchard and Sprüngli. The Nestlé family had already been established by the 1860s. In 1912, praline was invented and became one of the latest crazes of chocolate. In the 1930s, improvements in the preservation of chocolate also now allowed it to be included in other foods so that chocolate pastes and other chocolate derived products could be more easily mixed with other food items after they were transported to other regions. Today, Western Africa produces about 2/3 of the the world's chocolate. The price of chocolate has been relatively volatile in recent times, as world politics influences the trade in cocoa. Unfortunately, this has also meant that modern day slavery has often been associated with cocoa production, as low prices have sometimes created or instigated farmers to use forced labor or not pay their workers.
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