Structural characteristics of cocoa particles and their effect on the viscosity of reduced fat chocolate

Aimed at the manufacture of reduced fat chocolates, a novel method of trapped fat reduction was assessed: Manipulation of the cocoa ingredient. Cocoa mass was replaced with cocoa powder (11 g/100 g or <1 g/100 g fat) and added ‘free’ cocoa butter. A cocoa solids approach to design reduced fat chocolates with satisfactory flow properties is attractive to industry since it circumvents introduction of ingredients not commonly used in chocolate manufacture. Results showed that the cocoa mass chocolate had a higher viscosity than cocoa powder chocolates of the same total fat content due to the presence of trapped fat globules as identified by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The chocolate prepared with standard defatted cocoa powder containing 11 g/100 g fat had a lower viscosity than the chocolate containing highly defatted cocoa powder (<1 g/100 g) due to particle shape and fat diffusion into the particles as revealed by microscopy analyses. Based on the evidence presented, it can be concluded that standard defatted cocoa powder, as widely used by the industry, is indeed the best compromise in terms of free fat, particle size and morphology attempting to formulate fat reduced chocolate of acceptable molten state viscosity.