Quality characteristics of chocolate – Containing some fat replacer

Chocolate products are the most important products of candy that are popular with a lot, especially children and as a source of energy in addition to its high nutritional value. In chocolate industry, many of ingredients such as cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter, fats, emulsifiers and flavorings play an important role in product quality. This research aims to assess the fatty replacement and its impact on the organoleptic and rheological characteristics of chocolate for the treatment of some problems that arise during marketing thereby increasing the economic returns of these products. Novel functional chocolate spreads were formulated by replacing palm oil in conventional soft chocolate spread by palm olein and cotton seed oil at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% levels. Physical, chemical and rheological properties such as particle size distribution, apparent viscosity, flow behavior constants and hysteresis behavior, also sensory evaluation such as smoothness, melt rate, cocoa flavor and milk flavor were measured in soft chocolate samples. Rheological properties indicated that the lower replacement rate 25% of palm olien was closest to the control sample and increasing the ratio of fat replacer had significant advance effect on rheological properties of investigated chocolate. Sensory evaluation revealed that chocolate made from 25% palm olein was more accepted as conventional chocolate.