Are pieces of cockroaches found in 'every batch' of chocolate and chocolate liquor?
Contrary to a social media post's claim of "ground-up cockroach parts found in every batch" of chocolate, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says cockroaches, in part or in whole, are not in chocolate.
While FDA standards do allow up to 60 insect "fragments" per 100 grams of chocolate or chocolate liquor, an FDA spokesperson told Lead Stories those would be from insects found in and around the cocoa bean plants used for chocolate production.
Since cockroaches would far more likely be found in an unclean processing plant — not in the outdoor cultivation and harvesting area — that would indicate measures aren't being taken to keep a plant clean.
"Because of that, there's no allowable level of cockroaches in food products, and that includes cocoa," the FDA spokesperson said.