Can eating chocolate lead to a single attack of illness?

Except for someone with special dietary limitations for health reasons, it isn't likely that consuming a reasonable amount of chocolate will make a person sick. However, Morton Satin tells us in Food Alert!, “Cocoa is derived from cocoa beans by a rather complicated process. Throughout this process, opportunities arise for cocoa to become contaminated.” If strict sanitation processes are not followed, microorganisms can flourish. The pathogen of greatest concern in cocoa is salmonella. Young children are particularly susceptible to illness from these bacteria because even a small number of them can make children ill. Consumers have no way of telling if their chocolate has been contaminated by unsanitary processing because contaminated chocolate will look and taste perfectly fine. However, since salmonella outbreaks from chocolate are infrequent, there’s no need to give up this treat for fear of food poisoning.

Candy bars usually have a “use by” date on them, and so do some boxed chocolates. In general, these dates on any product indicate the last day that the product will be at its best in terms of quality (taste, texture, and so on). They do NOT mean that the product is unsafe to eat after that date. Not surprisingly, the Hershey Company claims that its products will not cause illness even if eaten well past the expiration date.

Chocolate expert David Lebovitz does offer the following advice: “If there is green mold, or anything furry, that means the chocolate got damp. In that case, it should be tossed.”

Sources:

Satin, Morton. “Food Alert! the Ultimate Sourcebook for Food Safety, second edition. Checkmark Books, 2008.

Chocolate FAQs—David Lebovitz
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/11/chocolate_faqs.html

Hershey’s Consumer Service phone line