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What Is Soy Lecithin? The Emulsifier in Your Chocolate
Soy lecithin, listed as "emulsifier (soy lecithin)" in the US and E322 in Europe, is a mix of fatty compounds called phospholipids, taken from soybean oil when the oil is refined. Chocolate makers add a small amount so cocoa particles and fat mix smoothly and the melted chocolate flows. FDA lists it as generally recognized as safe.
Both of these bars list it: fourth of five ingredients on the dark, sixth of seven on the milk.
What is soy lecithin made from?
Crude soybean oil carries a few percent of gummy phospholipids. When the oil is refined, water is mixed in. Those compounds swell into a gum and a centrifuge spins them out. Dried, that gum is the thick golden lecithin sold to food makers, a byproduct of producing cooking oil.
The name comes from the Greek word for egg yolk, where lecithin was first identified in the 1840s. Today most food lecithin comes from soybeans, with sunflower and canola the usual alternatives. In Europe all of them share one additive number, E322.
Why is lecithin in chocolate?
Chocolate is solid particles, cocoa and milk powder and sweetener, suspended in cocoa butter. Those particles do not coat easily with fat, so melted chocolate without help is thick and slow. A phospholipid has one end that likes fat and one end that does not, and it settles on the surface of each particle so the fat can flow around it.
Makers use that to save cocoa butter, because chocolate with lecithin in it pours and fills a mold on less of it.
Our No Added Sugar Dark Chocolate 85g lists five ingredients in this order: maltitol as the sweetener, cocoa paste, cocoa butter, soy lecithin as the emulsifier and a flavoring. Ingredients are listed by weight, so the bar holds more maltitol, cocoa paste and cocoa butter than lecithin.
Is soy lecithin an allergen?
For labeling, yes. Soy is one of the nine major food allergens under US law. Highly refined soybean oil is exempt but soy lecithin is not, so a food made with it has to name soy on the label. That is why both bars above list soy among their allergens.
If you avoid soy, sunflower lecithin does the same job. Our No Added Sugar Dubai Chocolate 200g uses sunflower lecithin with two other emulsifiers and has no soy among its ingredients. Always read the allergen line on the pack you are buying, including the may contain wording.
| Soy lecithin | Sunflower lecithin | |
|---|---|---|
| EU additive number | E322 | E322 |
| Source | Soybean oil refining | Sunflower oil refining |
| US allergen labeling | Soy must be declared | Not a major food allergen |
| Job in chocolate | Emulsifier, helps flow | Emulsifier, helps flow |
| In our range | Dark and Milk Chocolate 85g | Dubai Chocolate 200g |
Sources: FDA food allergen guidance; EU food additive list; Diablo ingredient lists.
Is soy lecithin safe to eat?
Yes. Lecithin is affirmed as generally recognized as safe under 21 CFR 184.1400. In Europe, when the European Food Safety Authority looked at it again in 2017, its panel judged a numerical acceptable daily intake unnecessary and found no safety concern for the general population over one year of age (EFSA Journal, 2017).
Lecithin is not a sweetener and makes no real difference to the sugars line. The sweetness in both 85g bars comes from maltitol, explained in our guide to what maltitol is. Our Milk Chocolate 85g reads 6.7 g sugars per 100 g, and those are naturally occurring sugars from the milk, with no sugar added. The Dark 85g and Dubai 200g contain naturally occurring sugars too, with none added. Not a low calorie food. See nutrition information for sugar and calorie content.
Frequently asked questions
Is soy lecithin bad for you?
No. FDA affirms lecithin as generally recognized as safe, and EFSA's 2017 review of E322 found no reason to cap it with a daily intake figure. Because it comes from soybeans it is labeled as soy, so check the allergen line if you avoid it.
Is soy lecithin vegan?
Soy lecithin itself comes from a plant. Whether a chocolate is vegan depends on every other ingredient, and milk powder or butter rules most milk chocolate out.
What is the difference between soy and sunflower lecithin?
The source oil. Both do the same job in chocolate, but only soy lecithin has to be declared as a major allergen on a US label.
Does lecithin contain sugar?
A little, as a few percent of the lecithin itself. Chocolate uses it in tiny amounts, so it makes no real difference to the sugars figure on a nutrition panel.