Quality attributes of palm sap-based sugar containing chocolate using alternative processing

Nowadays, the demand for healthier alternative sweeteners and attempt to replace the most common sweetener used in chocolate, sucrose, is increasing. One of the alternatives, claimed to have better health benefits containing minerals and vitamins and exhibiting a low glycemic index (GI), is palm sap-based sugar. In this study, the chocolates were alternatively produced through a combination of Stephan mixing and ball mill refining. In order to gain better understanding, the chocolates was also produced by conventional method employing sequence of mixing, roll refining and conching. Compared to the conventional processing which is very time- and energy-consuming, the alternative processing method requires less time and energy, and additionally can be easily applied for small-scale production. The main objective of this work was to investigate the impact of sucrose replacement by palm sap-based sugars on the quality attributes of dark chocolate, more particularly colour, hardness, fineness, melting profile, flow behaviour and aroma profile. The results show that the physicochemical properties of palm sap-based sugars influenced the chocolate quality attributes to some extent. Compared to the chocolates sweetened with sucrose, palm sap-based sugar containing chocolates produced by means of alternative processing were relatively similar in mouthfeel melting but exhibited a slightly difference in hardness, colour, and mouthfeel viscosity. Furthermore, the outcome of this study shows that palm sap-based sugars have the potential of fully replacing sucrose for the production of high-quality chocolates as whilst imparting a unique aroma and possible health benefits in comparison to standard chocolates.status: publishe