Don’t get scared just because you can’t pronounce it. If you like chocolate you’ve probably eaten it. Let me fill you in on the story.
I think the first medicine I ever heard of was “Ricinus,” a liquidy concoction that came in a brown bottle. My mother would ply me with it when she suspected I was constipated. Although I can’t imagine why as a child I would have had such a problem since our diet in Hungary back then included generous doses of goose fat. That should have allowed everything to slide through at a pretty regular pace. But why am I telling you about my youthful bowel habits? Because these memories were triggered by a question that has come up about a substance called “polyglycerol polyricinoleate” that has appeared on the labels of chocolate bars.
As one might guess from the name, there is a connection to “Ricinus.” That connection is forged through the castor bean plant, botanically known as Ricinus communis. It is a pretty plant, sometimes grown ornamentally, but mostly cultivated for the seeds found in the plant’s fruit. The seeds can be pressed to produce an oil that has industrial value in paints, glues, brake fluids and various lubricants. And the oil can be used to produce polyglycerol polyricinoleate, an emulsifier that is now used extensively by chocolate manufacturers. Chocolate lovers of course look for taste, but they also seek smoothness. A gritty product just won’t do. And therein lies a challenge. Chocolate is basically a mixture of cocoa butter, cacao particles, sugar, and in the case of milk chocolate, milk. The texture of the final product depends on how well these components can be blended together, which in turn depends on how effectively the friction between the ingredients can be reduced. This is where emulsifiers come in. These chemicals serve as internal lubricants, leading to a smoother consistency and easier flow when the chocolate is melted. That is of great importance when producing chocolate coatings.
The classic emulsifier used in chocolate manufacture has been lecithin, mostly derived from soy oil. But it is increasingly being replaced by polyglycerol polyricinoleate because of its greater effectiveness at reducing the viscosity of the chocolate, and perhaps more importantly, this chemical allows for less cocoa butter to be used and therefore makes for lower fat chocolate. Increasing cocoa butter content increases smoothness, but cocoa butter is expensive. The use of polyglycerol polyricinoleate allows for the production of cheaper chocolate without sacrificing texture.
Of course consumers wonder if anything else is being sacrificed, such as safety. A virtually unpronounceable chemical name raises skepticism in many minds. Especially in this case, when people discover that castor beans contain one of the most toxic natural substances known, a protein called ricin. This chemical is so toxic that prior to World War I the U.S investigated its use as a coating for bullets. When ricin gets into the bloodstream it can kill in incredibly tiny doses. Since ricin can be inhaled, it was investigate During World War II for possible use in cluster bombs. The Soviet KGB put ricin to a practical use, supplying the Bulgarian secret police with the tiny ricin containing pellets that were used to assassinate dissident Georgi Markov in London in 1978 with a modified umbrella using compressed gas to fire the pellet. And today there is concern that terrorist groups are looking to extract ricin from castor seeds. But there is no need to worry about chocolate. Ricin is not soluble in fat at all and does not end up in the oil when the castor beans are pressed. And of course the polyglycerol polyricinoleate produced from the oil has undergone the stringent regulatory process required for a food additive. You may not be able to pronouce the complex term, but you can consume polyglycerol polyricinoleate safely.