When and why is chocolate blue?

Many of us love chocolate and chocolate milk drinks. But what colour is this drink supposed to be?

Surely it is brown, you say.Chocolate milk is brown. But maybe it is actually blue!

Well, strange as it may seem, some chocolate milk manufacturers choose to add a 'Brilliant Blue' food colouring, known as 133, in our popular chocolate milk drinks.

Ridiculous as this sounds, it is sadly and madly true!

The next time you pick up a container of chocolate milk, check out the ingredients on the back of the bottle or carton. You may be surprised at the common inclusion of the artificial food colour known as Brilliant Blue (133). Sometimes you will also get an additional artificial colour known as Chocolate Brown HT (155). Go figure!

I picked up a bottle of Oak chocolate milk today and saw that it boasted loudly on the front that it had 'no added sugar' in its contents.

That might be so. But hidden on the back was the much smaller admission that it did contain the artificial colours 133 and 155 - otherwise known as Brilliant Blue and an extra dose of Brown HT.

Oak is not alone in its food additives for chocolate milk. Moove and other big brands are also shameless culprits. 

As always, though, my question is why? Why do these big companies think we need to have chocolate products with artificial blue additives? Does it improve the taste, texture or look of the milk? Probably not.

This is particularly pertinent when other brands rely on the natural cocoa content and therefore do not use any artificial colours in their chocolate drinks. These brands include Milo, CalciYum and the Coles-own product. Thank you to these guys for sensible alternatives.

So if some manufacturers can do it without any fuss, why can't the big names like Moove and Oak also do the right thing? We really don't need blue chocolate, or any extra brown stuff either.

Chocolate is just chocolate. Leave it alone. Don't mess with it. Keep it natural and leave the artificial colours out of it.

Blue chocolate indeed!