Scientists 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 totally irresistible:
By analysing each of the steps, the interdisciplinary research team from the School of Food Science and Nutrition and the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds hope it will lead to the development of a new generation of luxury chocolate that will have the same feel and texture but will be healthier to consume.
During the moments it is in the mouth, the chocolate sensation arises from the way the chocolate is lubricated, either from ingredients in the chocolate itself or from saliva or a combination of the two.
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 rather limited role and could be reduced without having an impact on the feel or sensation of chocolate.
[...] "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 that has been rarely 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, these help to make chocolate feel so good."
[...] "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 researchers believe the physical techniques used in the study could be applied to the investigation of other foodstuffs that undergo a phase change, where a substance is transformed from a solid to a liquid, such as ice-cream, margarine or cheese.
Journal Reference:
Siavash Soltanahmadi, Michael Bryant, and Anwesha Sarkar, Insights into the Multiscale Lubrication Mechanism of Edible Phase Change Materials [open], ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023, 15, 3, 3699–3712. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c13017
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Instead of outputting in plastic, this printer builds models that you can eat:
All of the best 3D printers print from some form plastic, either from filament or from resin. But an upcoming printer, Cocoa Press, uses chocolate to create models you can eat. The brainchild of Maker and Battlebots Competitor Ellie Weinstein , who has been working on iterations of the printer since 2014, Cocoa Press will be available for pre-order, starting on April 17th via cocoapress.com (the company is also named Cocoa Press).
[...] In lieu of a roll of filament or a tank full of resin, the Cocoa Press uses 70g cartridges of special chocolate that solidifies at up to 26.67 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit), which the company will sell for $49 for a 10 pack. The cigar-shaped chocolate pieces go into a metal syringe where the entire thing is melted at the same time rather than melting as it passes through the extruder (like a typical FDM printer).
Video demonstrating how the Cocoa Press works.
Related: Why Chocolate Feels So Good? It's Down to Lubrication
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Kell on Wednesday March 01, @01:36PM (2 children)
I think they miss the fact that no matter how cleverly you layer the chocolate and fat content, at some point the person eating the chocolate will chew, mixing it all up, and then be faced with a roughly homogenised medium-fat chocolate that probably few would prefer. Seems smart on the surface, but I'm very skeptical.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 01, @02:26PM (1 child)
The layering effect works well on potato chips. The highly processed ones like Pringles are even only salted on the side most likely to be put in contact with the tongue first, and it's both a more satisfying sensation of saltiness, even overall after chewing, and a significantly lower sodium content per chip. I believe Pringles went from salt in the chip paste mix to a layer of salt on the outside sometime in the 1980s.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @01:36PM
See also: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cargill/2016/10/03/innovative-way-to-reduce-sodium/?sh=7b188983489e [forbes.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01, @01:42PM (5 children)
My first thought, when reading the headline, was that chocolate might make a messy but enjoyable replacement for KY jelly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01, @01:54PM (3 children)
I once heard that a King Size Mars Bar was an enjoyable replacement for sex, turns out they weren't even going to eat the fucking thing!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01, @02:28PM
The slow melting away would seem to be anti-climatic.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday March 01, @06:18PM (1 child)
The truth behind Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull and a Mars bar [faroutmagazine.co.uk]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 01, @07:32PM
And I thought I was the only one old enough here to remember that ...... They were my teen years!
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday March 01, @06:25PM
I'm not in the habit of ingesting KY Jelly. Or is that the ingredient in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which I hear USAians enjoy?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday March 01, @02:26PM
In a foundry, sand mullers crush sand to break up clumps and distribute the binding agent uniformly on each individual grain in a way that is difficult to duplicate on other machines. It's a pair of heavy wheels that roll over the mixture followed by a scoop that scrapes what squeezes out back into the track to be run over again on the next pass.
Making chocolate, the machine that grinds roasted cocoa nibs looks very much like a sand muller. I'd guess it's the secret sauce behind the uniform coating on the cocoa particles. It's a cool bit of tech.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01, @02:51PM (2 children)
Seems more likely to be a cost cutting thing than a health benefit thing. The sugar is more likely to kill you than the chocolate fat.
For real chocolate the fats aren't actually that bad. e.g. stearic acid seems ok: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stearic_acid#Metabolism [wikipedia.org]
Same for oleic acid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleic_acid#Health_effects [wikipedia.org]
Palmitic acid is unhealthy but it's less than one third of cocoa butter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter#Extraction_and_composition [wikipedia.org]
So 90% Cocoa Dark Chocolate with less than 10% sugar is likely to be better for your health than 45% Cocoa Dark Chocolate with 50+% sugar.
And worse would probably be some fake chocolate with 50+% sugar even less cocoa and some worse quality vegetable oil.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 01, @03:51PM
Regardless of what's good or bad for you, reducing fat content reduces calories and there will always be a certain segment of the market who "watches their calories," and so you should have a sales advantage with them.
It's all about perception: can you tell the difference in taste and texture? If not, does the label "look healthier" to at least some segments of the consumer market? Finally, can you price it lower, or price it the same and make more profits?
Sounds like they've got all three bases covered in this story, Trifecta! So, fourth question: are they "puffing" their prospects looking for an inflated valuation during an investment phase?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Wednesday March 01, @06:32PM
What would be worse is the addition of butyric acid for the authentic flavor of Hershey's 'chocolate'.
Chemistry World: Butyric Acid: The taste of American chocolate divides continents. Louise Crane reveals the ingredient that explains why [chemistryworld.com]
Huffington Post: Why Hershey's Chocolate Tastes Like ... Well, Vomit [huffingtonpost.co.uk]
12 Tomatoes: Why Hershey’s Chocolate Tastes Bad to Some People [12tomatoes.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by istartedi on Wednesday March 01, @09:45PM
This rings true for anybody who appreciates good chocolate (and not to come off like a snob, but by "good chocolate" I mean "not Hershey's milk").
A lot of times when eating it, I'm thinking about how to best break it apart so that it will dissolve properly. Sometimes I think there might be a market for customized chocolates designed to fit your palate. It shouldn't be a perfect cast, because then it would just stick there and you wouldn't get liquid coming out over the top. Maybe an oval with a rough top and flat bottom would be good. It would look weird, but it might have the best mouth feel.
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