Chocolate is loved by almost everyone. Some of us have favorites and some will just eat almost anything and everything chocolaty. So it is apparent that choco-lovers have noticed a whitish coat appearing on the surface of chocolate bars and wondered what it could be. This coating is known as chocolate bloom and is actually harmless even though it dulls down the rich, dark exterior of the chocolate. To know more about this bloom researchers from the Hamburg University of Technology have studied it by using X-rays.
This bloom is formed when liquid fats, cocoa butter, migrate through the chocolate onto the surface and crystallize. Svenje Reinke, the author of the research said that this crystallization process takes place when liquid chocolate cools down in an uncontrolled manner. A quarter of the lipids in the chocolate are already in a liquid state so particular liquid ingredients used for making chocolate can speed up the formation of the bloom on its surface. Chocolates stored for long periods or stored in higher temperatures displays fat blooms most.
DESY’s x-ray source PETRA III helped to see the process of fat bloom by examining various types and mixes of chocolate which were ground to a fine powder and used x-rays on the powder to see the process with better details. Scientists added drops of sunflower oil on each of the samples of chocolates and powders for triggering a wetting process with the oil and it penetrates the smallest pores involved in the chemical composition of chocolate.
Reike said that the structure of the liquid fat inside chocolate has altered within a few hours and the liquid fat had dissolved the additional crystalline lipid structures, which made the chocolate softer and thus the migration of the lipids observed easily.
This procedure has assisted in seeing and understanding the dynamics of fat bloom in chocolate much better and Dr. Stephan Roth, DESY scientist said this had been the first time that scientists are going to be able “to track in detail the dynamic mechanisms that lead to the creation of fat bloom.”
Chocolate is sensitive to fluctuating temperatures and crystals having a significant role for chocolate and this study has assisted in understanding the way these crystals travel and migrate in chocolate in certain temperatures.
Crystals existing in cocoa butter are used for making chocolate and they crystallize into 6 different types of crystal forms thus the amount of fluid is also vital when making chocolate and crystals formed by it. The amount of fat bloom can be controlled by manufacturers by controlling the crystallization.
Tasnuva Rahim
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