Mold can look quite different. Mold may appear fuzzy, hairy, raised, or irregular, and it can sometimes be accompanied by an unpleasant smell.
If your chocolate has visible fuzzy growth or smells strange, don’t taste it simply to find out whether it is safe. When food appears genuinely spoiled, throwing it away is the safer option.
The type of chocolate also matters.
A plain chocolate bar is different from a chocolate product filled with cream, fresh fruit, custard, or other perishable ingredients. Filled products may have different storage requirements and can spoil for reasons that have nothing to do with chocolate bloom.
This is why it’s important to check the packaging and storage instructions, particularly for products containing dairy or other perishable ingredients.
Temperature is one of the biggest reasons chocolate develops that strange white appearance.
Chocolate generally prefers a cool, dry, stable environment. Leaving chocolate somewhere hot, such as near an oven, stove, sunny window, or inside a warm car, can encourage cocoa butter to move through the chocolate.
Moving chocolate repeatedly between warm and cold environments can also contribute to changes in the surface.
Humidity can be another problem.
See more on the next page