Do you find chocolate totally irresistible? The way chocolate changes from a solid into a smooth emulsion in the mouth, it feels so good. Agree? Reading this itself may be making your mouth water and crave for chocolate.
Scientists at the University of Leeds have found the answer to why chocolate feels so good and totally irresistible. They say it is all down to lubrication. The research team hope that their finding will help in the development of healthier chocolates with the same texture and feeling.
The sensation you get when you eat chocolate arises from the way it is lubricated in the mouth, either from ingredients in the chocolate itself or from saliva or a combination of the two.
The scientists at Leeds decoded the physical process that takes place when the chocolate in the mouth. According to them, solid cocoa particles are more important for the tactile sensation, and fat deeper inside the chocolate has a rather limited function. So, they suggested that fat in the chocolate could be reduced without impacting the feel or sensation of eating chocolate.
Anwesha Sarkar, Professor of Colloids and Surfaces in the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds, noted that lubrication science, which explains how food actually feels in the mouth, can be used to design food with better taste, texture or health benefits.
In their study, they found that fat comes into play the initial stage of lubrication (almost immediately when the chocolate is in contact with the tongue). It is this fatty film that makes the chocolate feel smooth. After that solid cocoa particles are released, and they become mainly responsible for the chocolate sensation you get.
Regardless of the percentage of the fat it has (5 per cent or 50 per cent), a chocolate will still form droplets in the mouth and give you the tactile sensation. What matters here is the location of the fat in the make-up of the chocolate, Sarkar stated.
To make chocolate healthier, Leeds researchers suggested putting the fat layer on the outer layer of the chocolate, and effectively coating the cocoa particles.
In their study, the researchers focused on the sensation and texture of the chocolate. They did not investigate its taste. The study results were published in the scientific journal ACS Applied Materials and Interface.
For the study, they used a luxury brand of dark chocolate and tests were conducted on an artificial 3D tongue-like surface designed at the University.
Lead researcher Dr Siavash Soltanahmadi believes that understanding of the physical mechanisms that happen when we eat chocolate can help develop a next generation of healthier chocolate that offers the same feel and sensation of high-fat chocolate.
He is hopeful that their findings will help manufacturers to intelligently design dark chocolate to reduce the overall fat content.
