We’ve all heard about Maccas cheeseburgers not decomposing over long stretches of time, but now – in slightly frightening news – a 120-year-old block of Cadbury’s chocolate has been found and it looks pretty fresh.
Rather than rotting away – like normal food – the chocolate, which dates back more than a century, only has a few chunks missing. You can even clearly make out the Cadbury logo that is imprinted into the chocolate, as you can see above.
The bar, which is enclosed in an old school souvenir chocolate tin, was discovered by the National Library of Australia and comes from the personal collection of famous Australian poet Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson. It was found amongst the poet’s collection of diaries, newspaper clippings, and poetry.
‘There was quite an interesting smell when they were unwrapped,’ National Library of Australia conservator Jennifer Todd told the ABC.
‘[It was] an old tin of chocolates, belonging to Banjo, with the chocolates still wrapped in the box.’
Turns out the tin of chocolates were a gift from none other than Queen Victoria herself, with the intention of providing comfort to Boer War troops. A war you’ll be forgiven for not being familiar with, considering it took place probably before your grandma was even born.
A quick lesson in science: the reason behind the composed nature of the chocolate is likely to be linked to the dry environment it was kept in as well as the high content of sugar. Sugar can act as a food preservative by pulling water from the product making the chocolate an unlikely breeding ground for bacteria.
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While we’re all about inhaling as much gluttonous food as humanely possible in the guilt-free season otherwise known as Christmas, rather than digging up some old chocolate you have lying around, we strongly advise hitting up Woolies for a new bar.
