FATS & OILS
Why does chocolate feel so good?
Scientists, from the School of Food Science and Nutrition and the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds in England, have decoded the physical process that takes place in the mouth when chocolate is eaten – as it changes from a solid into a smooth emulsion that many people find irresistible. Fat plays a key function almost immediately when a piece
of chocolate is in contact with the tongue. After that, solid cocoa particles are released and they become important in terms of the tactile sensation, so fat deeper inside the chocolate plays a limited role and could be reduced without having an impact on the feel or sensation of chocolate. Anwesha Sarkar, Professor of Colloids and Surfaces
in the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds, says: “Lubrication science gives mechanistic insights into how food actually feels in the mouth. You can use that knowledge to design food with better taste, texture or health benefits. “If a chocolate has 5% fat or 50% fat it will still form
droplets in the mouth and that gives you the chocolate sensation. However, it is the location of the fat in the make-up of the chocolate which matters in each stage of lubrication, and this has rarely been researched. “We are showing that the fat layer needs to be on the
outer layer of the chocolate. This matters the most, followed by effective coating of the cocoa particles by fat, which
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helps to make chocolate feel so good.” Tests were conducted using a luxury brand of dark
chocolate on an artificial 3D tongue-like surface that was designed at the University of Leeds. When chocolate is in contact with the tongue, it releases a fatty film that coats the tongue and other surfaces in the mouth. It is this fatty film that makes the chocolate feel smooth throughout the entire time it is in the mouth. Dr Siavash Soltanahmadi, from the School of Food
Science and Nutrition at Leeds and the lead researcher in the study, says: “With the understanding of the physical mechanisms that happen as people eat chocolate, we believe that a next generation of chocolate can be developed that offers the feel and sensation of high-fat chocolate yet is a healthier choice. “Our research opens the possibility that manufacturers can intelligently design dark chocolate to reduce the overall fat content. “We believe dark chocolate can be produced in a gradient-
layered architecture with fat covering the surface of chocolates and particles to offer the sought after self- indulging experience without adding too much fat inside the body of the chocolate.” The study – Insights into the multiscale lubrication
mechanism of edible phase change materials – was authored by Siavash Soltanahmadi, Michael Bryant and Anwesha Sarkar, all from the University of Leeds.
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