For many years now, there has been a struggle on the Internet between supporters of traditional chocolate storage and innovators who prefer an alternative. Let's try to figure out which of them is right and find out the basics of the argumentation of both sides.
Manufacturers, as a rule, recommend storing dessert at a temperature of no lower than 16 degrees and no higher than 21. This can be explained logically - at a higher temperature, the cocoa butter in the product begins to soften and the product loses its shape. Is the storage temperature below recommended? Get an unpleasant surprise - the tiles become brittle and a white coating may form on them.
What to do if you were given not one, but several boxes of chocolates, and it’s hot in the apartment? How to ensure that the taste of the product does not change during long-term storage? This is discussed in our article.
Home storage conditions
Failure to follow the rules for storing chocolate can lead to the product spoiling, and its color, smell and taste changing for the worse. To prevent this from happening, it is enough to provide the sweetness with suitable conditions:
- The dessert should not be exposed to direct sunlight or heating devices, otherwise it will melt and change color.
- Do not store weight chocolate in film or a plastic bag. Wrap it in paper or foil.
- Do not store treats at air humidity above 75%; the optimal range is between 60 and 65%.
- Sweetness can absorb extraneous odors; place it away from strong-smelling foods, for example, put it on a shelf with dishes. It is also advisable to keep it in an airtight container.
- Chocolate does not like low and high temperatures; it will not change its properties and will not develop a coating at 16-20 °C.
Important!
The ideal storage location is the far corner of the kitchen cabinet.
How to store chocolates
It is recommended to store chocolate candies under the following conditions:
- The optimal air temperature is no higher than +18C, otherwise the confectionery products will begin to melt quickly. Under such conditions, bars or candies can be kept on the shelf of a kitchen cabinet - their taste will not deteriorate.
- If the room temperature is too high, the sweets should be placed on the refrigerator shelf.
- The air humidity level should be less than 75%, otherwise the chocolate products will become covered with mold.
Chocolate is a favorite treat for millions of adults and children. The luxurious taste and aroma of the confectionery product can be preserved for more than 12 months if storage rules are followed. Fresh chocolate will be an excellent dessert for your everyday or holiday table.
Rating
How long can it be stored?
Shelf life depends on the type of chocolate, since its varieties contain different amounts of fat. The fewer there are, the longer the delicacy remains edible.
Maximum shelf life by variety:
- tiled – up to a year;
- dessert – 10 months;
- with fillings and additives – 3 months;
- loose chocolate – 2 months;
- white (it contains a lot of cocoa butter) – 30 days;
- handmade, with natural additives, such as fruits and nuts – 2 weeks.
When purchasing, carefully examine the packaging to find the production date of the product, or check with the seller. This will allow you to accurately calculate until what time chocolate can be used for food.
What should be on the packaging of a quality product?
The delicacy in the store attracts attention with its colorful design and additions in the form of nuts, fruits, berries, and filling. When choosing a dessert, it is useful to study the information on the packaging. It should have:
- Information about the manufacturer (its name, location, contact details).
- List of ingredients, arranged by weight from heavy to light: cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, milk, sometimes cocoa powder, vanillin or vanilla extract, etc.
- The percentage of cocoa, and for dairy, also the content of dairy products.
- Net weight of the dessert, production date, shelf life and energy value.
- Certification marks and an indication that the product is manufactured in accordance with GOST.
The packaging itself must be tight and undamaged. All information is printed in large font. High quality printing.
You will learn how to choose a quality product in a store from the video:
How to understand that the expiration date has expired?
Information on the product label will help you understand that chocolate is expired . A spoiled treat can be recognized by the following signs:
- sour, rancid, astringent taste;
- stale, stale smell;
- too weak cocoa aroma.
Attention!
Chocolate moths pose a serious health hazard. Before eating dessert, break the bar. If small grains of feces, larvae or “tunnels” are visible, do not eat the product.
Adviсe
As usual, people buy chocolate for children. In this regard, when purchasing, you need to choose the highest quality products. Here are the recommendations to follow when purchasing such products:
- Always check the packaging. It should contain the following information - name of the manufacturer, date of manufacture, what the product consists of, expiration date.
- Check the tightness of the wrapper. It should be neat, without damage. Air should not penetrate through it.
- If you have chocolate and you don’t know how high quality it is, then you need to evaluate it yourself. Bring it home, put it in the closet. After a couple of hours, remove the product from the wrapper and try to break it. At the same time, high-quality chocolate will become crunchy. Its fracture should be matte, without shine or air bubbles.
- Next, you need to taste the chocolate. If the product is natural, it will quickly melt in your mouth. If this does not happen, it means that during the production of this product some fats were used that should not have been present.
- Having carried out such diagnostics and convinced of the high quality of the chocolate product, you can offer it to children for consumption.
Having studied all the features of chocolate and the rules for storing it, you can now buy your favorite dessert for future use and store it for a long time. If guests suddenly arrive, you will not need to urgently run to the store to buy dessert for tea. It will be enough to take a few steps to the refrigerator and remove from it the chocolate bars that have been stored there for several months. However, it is still better to eat this product fresh, when it has not lost any of its beneficial qualities.
Can the product be kept at low temperatures?
In a refrigerator
On hot days, the temperature in the house rises, and some people decide to place the chocolate in the refrigerator to prevent it from melting and losing its shape.
You can often hear that chocolate cannot be stored in the refrigerator, and it would seem that this is why: other products are placed in it, the smell of which can be collected by the delicacy, and the temperature in the refrigerator is kept low and it is quite humid there.
However, through repeated checks it has been proven that such a dessert can be kept in the refrigerator; it is enough to protect it from an unfavorable environment by wrapping it in several sheets of paper or foil.
In the freezer
In the freezer, chocolate without fillings and additives is stored for quite a long time and does not lose its quality after defrosting. Low temperature:
- extends the shelf life of the product;
- keeps it fresh.
Conditions for returning expired goods to the store
The presence of correctly labeled product packaging allows you to easily process the return of expired goods if you have a cash receipt and the product itself.
With candies bought by weight, it is more difficult, since the candy wrappers do not contain the required information regarding the timing of consumption of the candies.
In this situation, we can only hope that the seller has documentation for the product and has preserved the packaging box.
Otherwise, you will not be able to prove the delay and, therefore, issue a return of the goods.
Watch also the video about the expiration dates of chocolate and candies:
What is the best way to keep the product at home?
At room temperature
A suitable place to place chocolate would be a kitchen cabinet, for example, with clean dishes. At the same time, it is important that it is located away from heating devices and is not exposed to direct sunlight.
Advice
A bar in a sealed package does not need additional preparation before storage, but opened or weighed chocolate must be wrapped in paper.
In a refrigerator
When storing chocolate in the refrigerator, adhere to the following rules:
- Wrap the tile in several layers of foil or paper to limit the entry of cold and create an optimal temperature of 16 ° C.
- Place the chocolate bar on the shelf of the refrigerator door, preferably in a lockable compartment. This will protect the treat from foreign odors.
- Make sure that moisture does not penetrate under the layer of material in which the chocolate is wrapped. It is good if the product is in a closed, sealed package.
What are the dangers of eating stale sweets?
The shelf life of any goods has a reserve of 15-20%. If the shelf life of sweets is 6 months, then they are edible for 7 months. This rule does not apply to products stored improperly.
Eating spoiled candy can lead to food poisoning. Symptoms of intoxication include:
- bad feeling;
- dizziness and fainting;
- cutting pain in the lower abdomen;
- nausea and vomiting;
- diarrhea;
- change in body temperature;
- blood pressure surges;
- convulsions.
At the first signs of poisoning, it is enough to rinse the stomach with boiled water and drink sorbents. In case of severe intoxication, you should consult a doctor.
If you are poisoned by candies with a normal expiration date, it means that the conditions of their storage and transportation were violated. In this case, the buyer can file a complaint with Rospotrebnadzor. For this:
- save the remaining goods and their packaging;
- contact a doctor or medical facility to document the fact of food poisoning;
- write a written application to the territorial office of Rospotrebnadzor;
- Attach to the document receipts for the purchase of damaged goods, a doctor’s report, prescriptions for medications and receipts for their payment.
After this, send the store a written statement requesting compensation for moral and material damage. If the results are unsatisfactory, file a claim in court.
Consequences of poisoning
Food poisoning can cause an intestinal infection, which is accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, severe pain in the gastrointestinal tract, liver and pancreas. In addition, chills and fever appear with an increase in temperature.
During an allergic reaction, skin rashes appear on the body in the form of small or large red spots. Severe itching, runny nose, watery eyes appear, and asthma attacks may occur. Severe poisoning can cause convulsions and loss of consciousness.
Feeling worse may be a consequence of eating too much chocolate.
How does composition affect preservation?
chocolate
If you carefully read on the packaging what the chocolate is made of, you will see the name “cocoa mass.” It is obtained from cocoa fruits (beans). And then, as a result of complex technological influence, oil and powder are separated from the cocoa mass. It is the taste of butter that a person feels when a chocolate piece “melts” in the mouth.
There are three main types of chocolate, and each of them can be enjoyed for a certain time. Let's look at how long chocolate can be stored and how it depends on the cocoa content in it:
- Black - has the lowest content of cocoa butter and the highest content of cocoa liquor. Therefore, it has the longest shelf life - 12 months.
- Dairy - more butter and less cocoa are used for production. It can be stored for no more than 10 months if the composition does not contain any additions or fillings.
- White has the highest content of cocoa butter, and there is no cocoa liquor at all. Shelf life - no more than a month.
As you can see, it all depends on the oil content in the chocolate.
Do you know that…
After cocoa butter reacts with air to oxidize, the taste of the bar changes and begins to taste bitter.
New to the market is ruby chocolate, named for its pink color. It contains no dyes and has a berry flavor.
Chocolates
Confectioners surprise consumers with the variety of products they produce. But:
- Additions to the composition reduce the shelf life of chocolates to 4 months, and assorted chocolates delight in taste for only 2 months. These time frames apply to products manufactured at the factory.
- If chocolate and chocolate candies were made at home, then after 72 hours you can no longer eat them.
Manufacturers understand that antioxidants increase the time it takes to consume dessert. Therefore, they are included in the product. Knowing this, you need to carefully study the inscription on the label. Give preference to those products that are manufactured according to GOST rather than according to TU.
Do you know that…
The time it takes to consume the delicacy will be reduced if you choose a filling with a high oil content and a liquid consistency.
Expiration dates of popular brands of chocolate
You should trust well-known brands. Their products are in demand, and the manufacturer is unlikely to spoil their reputation. The shelf life of popular types of chocolate differs:
- Alpen gold – the composition includes fillings, but the manufacturer has increased the shelf life from 9 to 12 months;
- Milky way - delicate milk chocolate, but the shelf life has been extended to 12 months;
- “Alenka” - nothing is added to the dairy product, so the consumption time is 6 months;
- “Babaevsky” chocolate – stored for 12 months.
External and taste signs of unsuitable sweets
White coating is a sign of improper storage, but has a greater effect on taste and appearance. However, there are other reasons why you definitely shouldn’t eat sweets:
- Chocolate moth. Numerous small holes on the surface or cut of the candy are a sure sign of this scourge. There may also be grains present - these are waste products of moth larvae.
- Mold on candy. You should not cut off the affected layer, you need to throw away the entire batch. Mold actually penetrates deeper.
- A sour or rancid taste of candy is a clear sign of an expired product. Eating such sweets risks poisoning.
And lastly: if you have doubts about the quality of sweets in appearance and taste, it is better to take care of your health and refuse them.
Freezer
Sucrose crystallizes on the chocolate surface. At a temperature of -10 -12 ° C, normal for the freezer, it turns into a whitish coating due to the fact that fats are present in the chocolate. When you take chocolate out of the freezer, you will immediately notice a white coating as soon as it warms up. Sucrose appears after moisture evaporates.
If you place warm chocolate in a quick-frozen environment, there will be no whitish coating. Tiles at room temperature can be placed in the freezer, where the temperature is -18°C. It can be stored there for several years. But it is better to freeze and defrost a chocolate bar no more than once.
Providing chocolate with normal storage conditions is a guarantee of its true taste and beautiful appearance. But usually you don’t have to store chocolate for a long time at home.
How to choose
When choosing a sweet treat, you should remember that the retailer places the product on the shelves in such a way that the expired product is closest to the buyer. Therefore, it is better to take candies from the farthest rows, in the depths of the rack. Getting there can be difficult, and that's what enterprising sellers are counting on.
Another important feature when choosing confectionery products: the absence of a sticker pasted over the factory data about the product. Often unscrupulous sellers hide the real date of manufacture in this way.
Sweets that are sold by weight are often past their expiration date. Therefore, it is better to purchase a product in a closed manufacturer’s packaging, which contains all the data about the product.
Discounts and promotions that supermarkets often hold are nothing more than a way to get rid of goods that have expired or are about to expire. Such products are no longer suitable for subsequent storage - this should be understood from the very beginning.
- When buying chocolates (if they are in transparent packaging), pay attention to their appearance. There should be no dents or sagging on the surface of the product - it should be smooth and shiny.
- The filling of a high-quality chocolate candy is homogeneous, without sugar crystals or other inclusions.
- The aroma of sweets should be pleasant, fresh, without any extraneous shades.
- If there is a white coating on the surface of the candy, this indicates violations during the storage of the product.
- The best situation is with products in a closed manufacturer's box. On it you can read the release date of the product and its shelf life, which is usually 9 - 12 months.
