This article was taken from the July 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Each month Wired's chemist Dr John Emsley deconstructs an everyday product. He is the author of 110 research papers and ten books, including A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World (Royal Society of Chemistry)
INGREDIENTS
Fat-reduced cocoa, Dried whey, Dried skimmed milk, Dried glucose syrup, Milk chocolate, Maltodextrin, Lecithin, Thickener E407, Anticaking agent E551, Milk proteins, Aspartame, Vegetable oil, Emulsifier E471, Acesulfame K E950
ACESULFAME K
Acesulfame K, also known as E950 and C4H4KNO4S, is an artificial sweetener consisting of a potassium (K) salt of a sulphur-nitrogen cyclic molecule.
DRIED WHEY
Made by filtering the liquid that is produced when milk is curdled for making cheese. It is mainly lactose, which consists of glucose and galactose bonded together.
EMULSIFIER
E471 consists of a type of glycerol that has one or two fatty acid chains attached to it. The role of this emulsifier is to keep the ingredients blended together.
VEGETABLE OIL
The oil can be sourced from olives, rapeseed oil, coconut or palm oil. It comprises three long-chain fatty acids attached to a single glycerol molecule.
DRIED GLUCOSE SYRUP
This syrup is produced by the action of enzymes on starch. They break down its long chains of mainly glucose molecules into single units.
DRIED SKIMMED MILK
Dried skimmed milk is milk without its cream that has been spray-dried (injected into a stream of hot air) to remove water.
ANTICAKING AGENT E551 (aka silicon dioxide, sand, chemical formula SiO2) prevents the ingredients sticking together during storage.
FAT-REDUCED COCOA
This is the 45 percent of cocoa bean that remains after it has been ground up and hot-pressed to remove all of the cocoa butter.
THICKENER
E407, or carrageen, gives the drink the right consistency. It's a complex mix of carbs extracted from seaweed and is used in firefighting foam and sexual lubricants.
MALTODEXTRIN
Made from wheat starch, maltodextrin consists of short chains of linked glucose molecules. In the longer chains, there are up to 19 of these molecules.
ASPARTAME
Also known as E951 and C14H18N2O5, this is an artificial sweetener based on aspartic acid and phenylalanine, bonded with methanol. It's the basis of Canderel.
MILK PROTEINS
These are chains of 22 kinds of linked amino acids. Some are called essential because our body cannot make them - they have to be in our diet. Milk contains them all.
MILK CHOCOLATE
This is the traditional Cadbury product. However, the drink is only six percent milk chocolate (which is a combination of milk, sugar, cocoa butter and cocoa mass).
LECITHIN
This soya-extracted emulsifier, aka E322, comprises two long- chain fatty acids bonded to phosphate. Attached to these is a molecule of essential nutrient choline.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
