Study points way to low-fat chocolate

Soltanahmadi said.

The results – published in the ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces journal – implied that the fat deeper inside the chocolate played a limited role in contributing to sensation and could be reduced without having an impact on how the chocolate felt in the mouth, the report said.

The findings of a new study examining the texture sensation of eating chocolate could be used to design low-fat chocolate mimicking the sensation of a high-fat product, The Guardian reported on 13 January.

A team at the UK's University of Leeds conducted its research using a luxury brand of dark chocolate and an artificial tongue – a device with a 3D-printed tongue-like texture kept at 370C and powered to move like a human tongue.

The team found that chocolate released a fatty film that coated the tongue, giving a smooth sensation while in the mouth. After that, solid cocoa particles were released and became important in terms of tactile sensation.

“The fat layer needs to be on the outer layer of the chocolate, this matters the most, followed by effective coating of the cocoa particles by fat,” lead researcher Dr Siavash

“Our research opens the possibility that manufacturers can intelligently design dark chocolate to reduce the overall fat content,” Soltanahmadi said. “We believe dark chocolate can be produced in a gradient-layered architecture with fat covering the surface of chocolates and particles to offer the sought after self-indulging experience without adding too much fat inside the body of the chocolate.”

Similar techniques could be applied to help design healthier versions of other foods that transform from a solid to a liquid in the mouth, such as ice-cream or cheese.