Italy ordered to bin "pure" chocolate labeling

Italy faces a heavy fine after Europe's highest court ordered it to stop distinguishing between "pure" and substitute chocolate in what Brussels admits is a clash of cultures.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union voided an Italian law that recognizes some delicacies as "pure chocolate."

The court said if a product is made from 100 percent cocoa butter, that fact must be listed on the ingredients table only. It also said the EU's 1999 chocolate labeling rules make no room for a "pure chocolate" reference like the one Italy enacted in a 2003 law.

A decade-old row, following a change in European Union law to remove marketing distinctions between chocolate made with only cocoa butter and confections using other vegetable fats, has put the Italian parliament on a collision course with the EU executive.

In Italy, lawmakers have refused to adopt the EU directive, in contravention of laws governing the single European market, leading to Thursday's judgment at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Italian "pure chocolate 'labeling runs' contrary to the system of denominations for products sold under Union law," the court said, saying any distinction for consumers had to be "neutral and objective."

EU spokesman Roger Waite welcomed Thursday's court ruling, saying the EU rules pursue a fair balance between Europe's two different chocolate cultures and reiterated that Rome must comply.

"There is the culture of chocolate made purely from cocoa butter and there is the culture in a number of EU member states -- including the United Kingdom -- where there are other vegetable fats used," he said.

The EU summarized the law on its website specifying that chocolate "may contain up to five percent vegetable fat other than cocoa butter," such as illepe, palm oil, sal, shea, kokum gurgi, mango kernels or copra oil.