Effect of Ball-Mill Process on Some Quality Parameters of Chcocolate and Compound Chocolate: A Modelling Approach

The long processing time is among the reasons for low efficiency in the implementation of conventional conching and ball-mill techniques. In this study, the time-dependent vari- ation of the moisture, particle size, and water activity of dark, milk, white, and com- pound chocolate (cocolin) samples were modeled using polynomial regression analysis. For this aim, analyzes were performed in chocolate samples taken at 10-min intervals. The total processing time was 150 min. It was determined that the particle size, water activity, and moisture contents of all the samples decreased with time, but these decreases varied depending on the chocolate variety. Time- dependent particle size (D90), water activity (aw), and moisture variation models were modeled and R2 values were found in the range of .984–.996, .872–.988, and .805–.905, respectively. For all types of chocolate, the quadratic relationship for “time × particle size” and cubic relationship for “time × water activity” were deter- mined. For dark chocolate, the quadratic relationship was detected between time and moisture content. It was seen that this relationship was cubic for other types of chocolates. The results of the study reveal that the ball-mill technique is possible to be modeled successfully for the particle size change and moisture removal in the main chocolate varieties