Research uncovers secret well-tempered chocolate - Brief Article

Eurofood, April 26, 2001

News of development of a fail-safe method to produce premium quality chocolate could mean an end to forty years of research.

The breakthrough announced last month reveals how the crystals in cocoa butter and fat stabilise during tempering. The race has been on since the early sixties to isolate and study a specific crystal structure, which is seen as the key to unravelling the secret of chocolate making success.

"Our result will aid production of superior quality chocolate, with the required gloss, snap and smooth appearance and eliminate eventual fat bloom", said Dr Hans Kattenburg, research and development manager at ADM Cocoa.

Dr Kattenburg highlighted the resolution of crystal structure by x-ray diffraction as being of key scientific importance. The knowledge of beta-prime structure offers understanding of how crystallisation from alpha to beta-configuration takes place during tempering and which factors cause interference, he explained.

SYNCHROTRON MACHINE

The image of the crystal structure was obtained using a synchrotron machine at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France.

The project, which was started in 1993, is supervised by ADM Cocoa and funded by the Dutch Governmental Foundation for Technological Science.