Chocolate by any other name will still taste as sweet

Now as an old mama dog, I stay away from chocolate because chocolate is poisonous to my kind.

But white chocolate, there’s a treat! White chocolate contains no cocoa powder. Its primary ingredient, in addition to sugar, is cocoa butter. White chocolate is actually defined in federal regulations, 21 CFR §163.124.

White chocolate isn’t poisonous to dogs.

But my human turns up her nose at white chocolate and dismisses it as not real chocolate.

Under the laws of the State of California, my human is apparently wrong. A Court of Appeal recently held that white chocolate is—or should be—considered chocolate and a package marked “WHT CHOCO” should contain white chocolate.

A human sued Target and Walmart after buying products containing white baking morsels or chips, claiming false advertising. The list of ingredients did not list “chocolate” as an ingredient. My human believes that was appropriate because she insists, “WHITE CHOCOLATE IS NOT CHOCOLATE!”

But the Court of Appeal disagreed and held a reasonable consumer might believe that the label identifying white baking morsels or white baking chips on a product containing no white chocolate could be misleading or deceptive.

The moral of the story to my friends, both human and canine is, read the label!

Salazar v. Walmart (2022) 2022 WL 4298521 (Fourth District)

Salazar v. Target (2022) 2022 WL 4299338 (Fourth District)