Chocolate X-Rayed to Improve Quality and Stop Blooms

[Guest_Jim_*]

In my experience, people love chocolate unless they have an allergy or are actually sticking to a diet. We love it, until it has the white layer on it that looks like nothing you would want to eat. Even though these blooms are well known about, there is little understanding about them, which is why a team of researchers from DESY, the Hamburg University of Technology, and Nestle decided to study chocolate more closely.

That white layer is actually a fat bloom and, believe it or not, is completely harmless, but it still causes people to dispose of the chocolate and even file complaints. The bloom occurs when the liquid fat in the chocolate finds its way to the surface and crystallizes there. To understand the exact processes involved, the researchers pulverized samples of chocolate and shined X-rays through it to examine fat crystals and pores. Dropping sunflower oil on the samples allowed them to also watch the fat migrate, and they found the oil quickly penetrated even the smallest pores. As it dissolved into the chocolate, it affected the chocolate's structure, making it softer and easier for more fat to migrate, which could then lead to fat blooms.

Based on this study, which is the first to study the dynamics of fat blooms developing, the researchers suggest three ways to reduce the occurrence of fat blooms. One is to reduce the porosity of the chocolate, so fat migrates more slowly. The second is to keep the chocolate at a cool temperature, to limit the liquid fat. Finally the researchers suggest controlling the crystal structures of the fat in the chocolate, as this directly influences the amount of liquid fat in the chocolate. Cocoa butter has six crystal structures it can form, and some may be better than others.

Source: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

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