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Chocolate

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Book cover Particulate Products

Part of the book series: Particle Technology Series ((POTS,volume 19))

Abstract

Chocolate was introduced as a drink in Central America more than 30 centuries ago. In the sixth century it was brought to Spain and later to other parts of Europe and Northern America, where it became – after sweetening and change of spices – very popular amongst the upper class. In the nineteenth century, Van Houten in the Netherlands invented an improved procedure to separate cocoa powder and butter out of cocoa mass, which led the way to the production of various solid chocolate products. Production proceeds according to a complex process that comprises many stages in order to develop the best aroma, optimum taste and good appearance. The particle size distribution (PSD) is important for both ultimate chocolate sensorial quality and optimum viscosity of the liquid chocolate mass during processing. Optimum particle size for a nice, creamy taste of solid chocolate is in the range 15–30 μm. This is reached during the grinding stages of the process. Viscosity at elevated temperatures shows a complex, non-Newtonian behavior, containing a yield stress and shear-thinning effects. The rheological behavior is conventionally expressed according to the Casson equation. A linear relationship is reported between the percentage of fines and the Casson yield stress. With respect to taste, the presence of few particles larger than 30 μm, usually indicated by the PSD parameter D 90;3, is used as a quality criterion. In view of the importance of adequate particle size measurement and the fact that the laser diffraction technique seems to have taken a dominant position it is recommended that the refractive index values for chocolate, be agreed and standardized.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Theobroma means food of the gods.

  2. 2.

    The word cacao is the botanical name and refers to the tree, the pods and the unfermented beans from the pods. The word cocoa refers to all products after fermentation of the beans.

  3. 3.

    Afoakwa reports the use of 1.590 for the real RI part without imaginary part [4, 5]. Malvern Instruments reports 1.500 and 0.001 i respectively [private communication]. Do et al. use a real RI value of 1.45 without imaginary part [13]. This is at either side of the RI of main component sucrose, which is 1.538.

  4. 4.

    The imaginary part of the refractive index relates to the degree of light absorption in the particle.

  5. 5.

    The term ‘few’ probably stems from direct microscopic examination where one sees a very small number of large particles in a vast majority of small particles (> 99.8 % n/n). Note that the Hegman gauge is used for similar purpose in other products (see [32] and e.g. Chap. 12).

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  1. Delft University of Technology, Park Berkenoord 30, Pijnacker, 2641 CZ, The Netherlands

    Henk G. Merkus (Retired Associate Professor)

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  1. Henk G. Merkus
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Correspondence to Henk G. Merkus .

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  1. Delft University of Technology, Pijnacker, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

    Henk G. Merkus

  2. DSM Food Specialities, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

    Gabriel M.H. Meesters

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Merkus, H.G. (2014). Chocolate. In: Merkus, H., Meesters, G. (eds) Particulate Products. Particle Technology Series, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00714-4_8

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