DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A video has been received on Digiteye India WhatsApp tipline with a request to do a fact-check on the claim in it. The video shows a person speaking in Tamil and raising apprehension about the use of L-Cysteine, an ingredient in making chocolate. L-Cysteine is obtained from human hair that allegedly contains around 14% of it, which is an amino acid, says the presenter in the video. Amino acid is used as an additive to increase the shelf life of bread.
The major claim in the video is that chocolates are manufactured using L-Cysteine obtained from Human hair and the presenter says that the hair offered to Lord Venkateswara in Tirupati, as per the famous Hindu temple norms, remains a major source of raw material for chocolate manufacturers. The video also shows a range of chocolate products available in the background.
FACT CHECK
As per the EU directive 2000/63/EC, it was made mandatory to eliminate cysteine derived from human hair in foods and many chocolate manufacturers in Europe switched over to synthetic cysteine a year after 2000. For confectioners around the world, it is forbidden by many food standards agencies with reference to the UN arm FAO’s Codex General Standard for Food Additive (GSFA) list that makes permissible levels of food additives in various food groups.
According to Food Safety and Standrads Authority of India, any chocolate should be free from insects and other contaminants. FSSAI’s Regulation 2.7.4 of FSS (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulations 2011 specifies quality standards for Chocolate and its types. Further, sub-regulation 3 of this 2.7.4: chocolate standard clearly specifies that the material shall be free from rancidity or off odour, insect and fungus infestation, filth, adulterants and any harmful or injurious matter.
Another argument put forward by chocolatiers is that L-cysteine obtained by fermentation with artificial chemicals since the 1950s in what’s considered the simplest way. Compared to this, merely 100 kg of L-cysteine can be obtained from 1 ton of human hair, which is not inducive enough to chocolate manufacturers to opt for. Moreover, L-cysteine from human hair makes it more expensive as it requires to be added other chemicals to combat the odor, they said.
According to Marien Antony Parakkal, Commis Chef, the usage of cysteine in the processing of chocolate as food additive is not ruled out but it constitutes less than 2%, hence need not be mentioned in the labels as per EU standards. While Tirupati hair is not any natural or enriched component of ingredients in Chocolate formulation, it is difficult to identify the foods that have cysteine less than 2%. If it’s 14% as claimed, it would be easily broken down by any chemist whether human hair was turned into L-cysteine or E-920, says Parakkal, the chef involved in making confectionaries.
Another chocolatier, Akshaya Ravindra Babu, who owns a chocolate-making firm in India by name Sihi Chocolaterie, disputes the claim. “I have seen over 15 chocolate factories and own a chocolate factory myself. And human hair is not something we want to secretly put in chocolate and claim to have not put it. More than that, there are food regulatory bodies that would not even allow such a thing. As a chocolate manufacturer something I’ve understood is people love thier chocolate and I would never ever risk it by adding hair, not even in a million years,” says Akshaya inj response to the allegation that human hair is used in chocolates.
Another dismissal of the claim can be seen in Interesting Engineering article here. Stressing that human hair is not used, or required, during any part of the chocolate-making process, the article reminds us that
Hence, the claim in the video is misleading.
Claim: L-Cysteine, an ingredient in making chocolate is obtained from human hair.
Conclusion: L-Cysteine can be obtained using other chemicals and not necessarily using human hair, which is expensive and fails to meet quality standards in many countries.
Rating: Misleading — 
