Fat Bloom Caused by Partial De‐Oiling on Chocolate Surfaces after High‐Temperature Exposure

Fortification of chocolates with high-value-added plant-based substances: Recent trends, current challenges, and future prospects

High consumption of delicious foods, such as chocolates, is considered excellent snacks, capable of converting from health-threatening to great functional foods. The fortification of chocolates with high-value-added plant-based substances might improve their healthful effects, nutritional properties, and shelf life. Chocolate could be an effective carrier for plant-based substances delivery, and it could be an effective vehicle to treat and reduce the indications of disease, such as obesity, overweight, hypertension, stress, cardiovascular failure, congestive heart failure, and diabetes. Referring to the recent studies in chocolate fortification with high-value-added plant-based substances, it seems that the recent trends are toward its therapeutic effects against noncommunicable diseases. Despite the undeniable functional effects of fortified chocolates, there are some challenges in the fortification way of chocolates. In other words, their functional characteristics, such as rheological and sensory attributes, may undesirably change. It seems that encapsulation techniques, such as spray drying, antisolvent precipitation, nanoemulsification, and liposomal encapsulation, could almost overcome these challenges. Thus, several studies focused on designing and fabricating nanoscale delivery systems with the aim of chocolate fortification, which is discussed.

Pre-Crystallization of Nougat by Seeding with Cocoa Butter Crystals Enhances the Bloom Stability of Nougat Pralines

Fat bloom is an outstanding quality defect especially in filled chocolate, which usually comprises oils of different origins and with different physical properties. Dark chocolate pralines filled with nougat contain a significant amount of hazelnut oil in their center and have been reported as being notably susceptible to oil migration. The current study was designed to test the assumption that a targeted crystallization of nougat with cocoa butter seed crystals is an appropriate technological tool to reduce filling oil transfer to the outside of the praline and, hence, to counteract chocolate shell weakening and the development of fat bloom. For this purpose, the hardness of nougat/chocolate layer models and the thermal properties of chocolate on top of nougat were analyzed during storage at 23 °C for up to 84 days. Pronounced differences between layer models with seeded nougat and with control nougat that was traditionally tempered were observed. The facts that chocolate hardness increased rather than decreased during storage, that the cocoa butter melting peak was shifted towards a lower temperature, and that the hazelnut oil content in the chocolate was reduced can be taken as explicit indicators for the contribution of seeded nougat to the fat bloom stability of filled chocolate.