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Abstract
The addition of limonene, a low molecular weight hydrophobic compound, to chocolate was reported to decrease the hardness and the viscosity of chocolate, facilitating the production and improving the eating quality of reduced fat chocolate. The objective of this study is to understand the functionality of limonene in decreasing the viscosity and the hardness of chocolate, a fat (cocoa butter-based particulate suspension. This study shows that chocolate hardness was decreased because limonene mixes with cocoa butter, affects its crystallization pattern and decreases its solid fat content. After checking that limonene does not significantly affect the continuous phase volume fraction, we show that limonene decreases chocolate viscosity by decreasing the viscosity of the continuous phase, cocoa butter. The addition of low quantities of limonene in cocoa butter leads to a great decrease in the liquid fat viscosity. The dependence of the viscosity on the ratio of cocoa butter to limonene analyzed using Kay's equation seems to indicate that limonene mixes with and within the cocoa butter triglycerides, diluting the fat and leading to a decrease in the overall fat viscosity.
Keywords Viscosity * Crystallization * Chocolate * Cocoa butter * Limonene
(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)
Introduction
The development of a reduced fat chocolate with no compromise in eating quality is a response to consumer demand for healthier diets. There are, however, some technical issues that must be overcome before this can be successfully achieved.
In terms of microstructure, chocolate is a suspension of sugar, cocoa solids and milk solids, dispersed in a fat continuous phase based on cocoa butter. As it is desirable for particle sizes to be below 30 µm to prevent gritty texture, a fat content of approximately 30%wt is usually required to coat the surfaces of all the particles. Therefore, the fat content in regular chocolate usually ranges between 30 and 40%wt. The chocolates studied in this research have a total fat content of 25%wt. Reducing the fat content in chocolate causes a significant increase in the molten chocolate viscosity, because there is less fat to coat the particles, reducing the particles' ability to flow past each other. The thickening of molten chocolate is an issue in its processing as it makes operations like pumping, molding or enrobing more...