Dubai chocolatier condemns Europe's counterfeit kunafa craze

UK's Food Standards Agency has warned of copies of Le Damas brand

Dubai chocolate, filled with pistachio cream and crunchy kataifi pastry, has sparked an imitation industry. Getty Images

The maker of a popular brand of Dubai chocolate has been the victim of UK-based counterfeiters seeking to cash in on the sweet's popularity, The National can reveal.

The craze for Dubai chocolate has created countless imitations, which have become a familiar sight on confectionery counters in the UK.

Now, an investigation by The National reveals that tests on samples of chocolate claiming to be made by Le Damas, by the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA), indicate they are fake.

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The FSA originally issued a warning to the British public after three brands of Dubai chocolate, including one purporting to be Le Damas, were found to be missing warnings that they contained nuts.

Le Damas has provided detailed evidence of the differences between the wrapper of its legitimate product and the fake version.

It’s really important that the public are still aware of the risks

UK Food Standards Agency

This includes the insertion of a UAE flag by the counterfeiters in a bid to add authenticity to copycat products.

The company says it takes "the quality, safety and authenticity of our chocolates very seriously", and that all its products are made "under strict quality controls and comply with international food safety standards".

"We are aware of reports of potential counterfeit products being investigated by the UK Food Standards Agency and are co-operating fully with the authorities," said Le Damas.

Comparison between counterfeit Le Damas chocolate and the legitimate product, with manufacturer's highlighted differences in red. Photo: Le Damas

The UAE flag can be seen on the rear of the counterfeit Le Damas chocolate, with red circles marking differences with the real product. Photo: Le Damas

The counterfeit of Le Damas was among three types of Dubai chocolate the FSA says were supplied by a company named Black Sea Trading Ltd, which it has been unable to contact.

Le Damas also shared a letter from Jane Rawling, head of incidents at the FSA, which states that the chocolate was originally imported into the UK by GGN Intl Ltd, which is based in Witney in Oxfordshire.

The company has provided evidence to the FSA that "indicates that the product tested by the authorities may be a counterfeit version of the original", said Ms Rawling.

Gorprit Singh, a director of GGN Intl Ltd, which is the exclusive UK distributor of Le Damas, told The National the company contacted the FSA soon after it put out the notice about the rogue products.

Tests were conducted by Le Damas in the UAE to compare the two and it was ascertained that the product imported by Black Sea Trading was counterfeit, he explained.

“It’s a massive shock. A million thoughts run through your head and obviously frustration as well," said Mr Singh.

"Unfortunately we've just fallen victim to some other party bringing in counterfeit products. They've decided to put profit over the public's health. We were massively concerned for the public because the FSA say that they found ingredients such as peanuts which we've never used.

“You spend so much time building up trust with the consumers, who love the taste and love the product. Then suddenly, a lot of people will have lost that trust and they wouldn't know if it's real or not.”

Mr Singh said his company has sold 100,000 bars of Le Damas’s Dubai chocolate since it began 10 months ago, most of them online, with a small number going to shops,

He said the company is co-operating fully with the FSA and trading standards officials as it seeks to restart sales.

“We realised very quickly that we've got a big challenge ahead of ourselves to regain that trust. The only positive thing we can take is that the brand is so well established that people want to counterfeit it.”

Le Damas, which has been making sweets since 1951 and has its roots in Damascus, said it has taken steps to ensure its official distributors and retailers are clearly identified, so consumers can purchase genuine products.

"We want to reassure our customers that genuine Le Damas chocolates meet all labelling and allergen requirements, and any products not matching our official packaging are not authentic Le Damas," it said.

Black Sea Trading Ltd operates from an office block in Croydon, south London, but when The National paid a visit there was no answer at the registered address.

The receptionist explained that the company owner rarely appeared and the office was not used to make or store chocolate.

The FSA's Ms Rawling said a product it highlighted in its alert and sold under the brand name Le Damas "has been reported to be counterfeit and enquiries are under way".

“Genuine bars of Le Damas are on the market," she said. "It’s really important that the public are still aware of the risks that the other bars mentioned in the food alert, as well as potentially bogus chocolate bars, could pose, particularly those living with a food allergy or intolerance.”

Viral craze

Dubai chocolate was first made by British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda as a kunafa-filled chocolate named Can’t Get Knafeh of It.

She wanted the combination of chocolate and pistachio-filled Arabic sweets to satisfy her food cravings during pregnancy.

Ms Hamouda created Fix Dessert Chocolatier to market Dubai chocolate. The company's visibility took off after a TikTok video in 2024 showing a Dubai chocolate bar was viewed more than 90 million times.

The brand became a viral sensation as social media users, food lovers and content creators shared videos of the sweet.

Fix Dessert Chocolatier has no physical shop, website, social media sales or authorised resellers. Its chocolate bars are exclusively sold by Deliveroo in Dubai.

A brand of Dubai chocolate is made by Fix, which was founded by British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda. Antonie Robertson / The National

The company states on its Instagram page that there are no authorised resellers of the chocolate bars along with the warning: "Please beware of scammers!"

One Google search for Fix Dessert Chocolatier resulted in four different websites top ranked, with two using the exact phrase and the others presenting combinations of the search keywords.

A characteristic of the sellers is to require potential customers to bulk buy at least 10 bars, with one site requiring you to pay directly to its bank account.

A "Fix Dessert Chocolatier" also comes up on sales platform Etsy, with one bar on sale for £56 ($75) and a pack of 10 mini bars for £155. Meanwhile, on Amazon accessible in the UK, a Fix Dessert Chocolatier Assortment is currently unavailable, though judging by some of the reviews customers are not missing much. A third have one star out of five, with a user describing the product as "disgusting".

One of the three brands subject to the FSA allergen warning is called fix it, although there is no suggestion this is a counterfeit.

The social media reach of Dubai chocolate has led to a host of legitimate imitators, with Marks & Spencer and Iceland among the UK’s leading retailers producing their own versions. Many corner shops now stock Dubai chocolate.

Imitations everywhere

Andy Baxendale, an expert on the confectionery market in the UK, said Dubai chocolate is a “prime example of a TikTok-influenced product”, which has carved out a niche.

“The crunchy pastry with the pistachio paste and chocolate, it's just a really nice combination,” he told The National.

Its popularity and the absence of any protected territorial designation mean you can “make anything and call it Dubai chocolate”, which has led other makers to jump on the bandwagon, he said.

“People do want to imitate it, though not very well by the looks of it, if they’re sending stuff over that's illegal in the UK and it's been recalled,” he said.

He said counterfeiting happens in “every field, from consumer goods right through to food” but is more likely to occur on a smaller scale when it comes to confectionery.

The fix it brand has been on sale in the UK. Photo: Food Standards Agency

“To make them from scratch, they wouldn't be able to do it," he said. "Not unless they had access to a chocolate factory and that’s a big investment in all sorts of equipment.”

Mr Baxendale said counterfeiters instead buy cheap versions of confectionery and replace the wrapper with one from a more expensive brand.

“For example, if there’s a Dubai brand selling for £10, then you could probably get a cheap bar for 50p and replace the wrapper,” he said.

Some brands of Dubai chocolate sell for more than $50 but the FSA is also warning consumers to be wary of items that cost much less than you would expect.

“There is no way of knowing what ingredients are in potentially counterfeit bars, or what food hygiene practices are being followed by the people making or repackaging them,” said Ms Rawling.

“If you have bought any chocolates you think could be a fake, do not eat them or give them to friends and family.”