Chocolate sugar and fat reduction project unveiled

Research institute Campden BRI is inviting companies to join research into the evaluation of viable routes for sugar and fat reduction in chocolate and related products.

As part of the project, which will start next year, companies are also encouraged to explore new techniques for the assessment and potential mitigation of moisture and fat migration. The research, Campden BRI says, will provide a better understanding of the factors that influence quality and help to prevent or delay quality defects such as bloom development. It will also provide a detailed evaluation of the ways to reduce sugar and fat in chocolate-based confectionery to help companies optimise recipes for reformulation.

The project will explore the factors and mechanisms that influence fat and moisture migration; the effect that ingredients and processing can have during production and shelf life; the interactions between ingredients (milk powders, cocoa solids, sugars, fats, emulsifiers and inclusions) and the influence of processing conditions; sugar and fat replacement – alternative ingredients and reduction routes; a quantitative way of measuring how moisture and fat migrates within multi-component chocolate systems; the regulatory and labelling considerations when using alternative ingredients to replace sugar and fat.

The pre-competitive research will be steered by the group of participating companies. Each member will be able to exploit the findings for their own commercial benefit.

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