Black White

Our three limited editions have been available again for two weeks! We are proud of all three bars, but the licorice bar has a very special place in our hearts. We have been looking for licorice for a long time, because it turned out to be difficult to combine these two flavors. Chocolate melts quickly in your mouth and you can't stop chewing a regular piece of liquorice. We tried bay leaves, black and white powder, licorice powder, sal ammoniac balls, but nothing was really tasty. Ultimately we found a small licorice gem, which disappears in your mouth as quickly as the chocolate, with a good bite and a delicious, slightly salty sal ammoniac taste. And… E number 153. Why? We are happy to explain that to you.

What are E numbers?

E numbers represent additions permitted by the European Commission. These can be natural or unnatural, for example citric acid and vitamin C are an E number, and if you want to color something with beetroot juice, that is also an E number.

E-153 is natural, vegetable carbon. That sounds scary, but it's not that bad. You can find it in almost all licorice and wine gums. And also occurs, for example, when you put zucchini on the grill.

We received questions from one of our customers today about E-153. Marqt has a strict policy for which E numbers it carries in its range and, according to them, E-153 does not fit in with this. We should have known this, but we missed it. So not very handy of us….

Why is it in our milk licorice bar?

There is exactly 0.0019 grams of E-153 in our bar. That's one-hundred-thousandth of the bar to be precise. That seems like very little, but it is crazy for the taste! We also tried it without it, it was really a lot less tasty.

If the European Commission believes that an E number is harmful, it will draw up rules for a maximum permitted quantity. There is no ADI (acceptable daily intake) for E-153. The committee, just like science, is not convinced that this addition is harmful. Neither do E-number watchdogs such as Food info (WUR), Foodwatch and Bouillon, which go much further.

And now?

The discussion about E numbers is not as black and white as our limited edition bars.
Marqt is critical of E numbers, so are we. In this specific case we differ. No problem, that should be possible between good partners.

We have developed our liquorice bar with the utmost precision and we remain extremely proud of it. It is off the shelves at Marqt, but widely available in other stores. Be quick, because gone = gone!