The requirements set by the cocoa bean trade and the processors for cocoa beans are specified in contracts drawn up by the Federation of Cocoa Commerce (FCC) in which since 2002 the Cocoa Association of London (CAL) and the Association Français du Commerce des Cacaos (AFCC) are merged. The trade in cocoa (bags and “bulk”) functions with contracts of LIFFE (London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange), so via futures.
The most relevant characteristics of cocoa beans are the bean size (or bean count), the degree of fermentation and the absence/presence of defects like insect damage, mould, fragments and off-flavour (smokey).

The legal requirements set for cocoa and chocolate products were recently adapted by the European Commission with the new Directive 2000/36/EC, finalising decades of arguments within the European Union on the addition to chocolate of “foreign fats”; the Dutch legislation has been adapted accordingly.
The European Cocoa and Chocolate Directive 73/241/EEC allowed only the use of cocoa butter and milk fat, while a number of member states on joining the EEC used the so called “5% rule” (max. 5% of other vegetable, cocoa butter replacing, fats could be added to chocolate). The new Directive 2000/36/EC allows that max. 5% of cocoa butter equivalents (in all ratios miscible with cocoa butter) originating from 6 specific tropical vegetable fats can be added and that the addition has to be labelled clearly on the packaging. For these fats a method of analysis has to be available, which is sufficient accurate at the 5% level to check on the application of this rule.

Chocolates have to meet specific requirements on composition:

• chocolate (plain): min. 35% dry cocoa solids, of which min. 18% cocoa butter and min. 14% fat free dry cocoa solids,
• milk chocolate: min. 25% dry cocoa solids, min. 14% dry milk solids and min. 25% fat (cocoa butter + milk fat),
• household chocolate: min. 20% dry cocoa solids, min. 20% dry milk solids and min. 25% fat (cocoa butter + milk fat).

The Directive defines cocoa butter (fat obtained from cocoa beans or of pats of it), cocoa (powder) with min. 20% cocoa butter on dry matter and low fat cocoa (powder) with less than 20% cocoa butter on dry matter.

In the Dutch Food Law the Directive Akk. Cacao- en Chocolade-producten 1974 has been replaced (per august 3, 2003) by the Food Law decree “Cacao en Chocolade” as implementation and reference of the Directive 2000/36/EG.

The Dutch NEN 1229 (Cocoa butter, trade qualities and requirements) describes in details which requirements are set for cocoa butter in the trade and differentiates between press butter, expeller butter and refined cocoa butter.

The Codex Alimentarius (a FAO/WHO commission of the UN) defines a.o. standards to which products in international trade have to meet. Since 1995 these standards were made mandatory for trading between the member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

As European Directive 2000/36/EC has since come into force, these international standards for cocoa products and chocolate have been amended to bring them into line with this Directive. An number of standards have consequently been cancelled and others have been rewritten:

• cocoa butter (press/expeller/extraction/refined) in Codex Stan 86-1981, Rev. 1-2001;
• cocoa nib/liquor/cake/fines in Codex Stan 141-1983, Rev. 1.2001;
• chocolate (with more than 10 different recipes and names) in Codex Stan  87-1981; Rev 1-2003
• cocoa powder (cocoa) and cocoa-sugar mixtures in Codex Stan 105-1981, Rev. 1-2001;

The FCC prepares also definitions for cocoa products like nib, cake, powder and butter (press/expeller/refined).