Codex Committee on Cocoa Products and Chocolate (CCCPC)

The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) established the Codex Committee on Cocoa Products and Chocolate (CCCPC) in 1963 at its first ever meeting, and the Government of Switzerland accepted CAC’s invitation to host the new committee.   

Initially, quick progress was made on standards that could draw on texts produced by FAO’s Cocoa Study Group. This Study Group had done work to develop international standards and elaborated an FAO model ordinance and code of practice on cocoa beans, which defined the merchantable quality of cocoa beans and upon which some producing countries had already based their legislation. The model ordinance was therefore a foundational text for the draft standard for cocoa (cacao beans, cocoa (cacao) nibs, cocoa (cacao) mass, cocoa press cake and cocoa dust cocoa fines) for use in the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate products. 

Cocoa beans were eventually dropped from the standard-setting process. 

Standards were developed on an array of cocoa- and chocolate-related products before the Committee adjourned sine die in 2001.