Investigating the impact of Palm Sap Sugar proportion and fat content on heat stability of Milk Chocolate

Abstract

Chocolate is characterised by its solid texture at relatively low temperature. However, it will easily melt as the temperature increase. This phenomenon contributes to the low level of chocolate quality in tropical countries. In order to cope with this problem, an innovation in producing thermostable chocolate is highly required. This work investigated the impact of fat content and palm sap sugar proportion on the heat stability of milk chocolate. Hardness of chocolate was used as a parameter to evaluate the chocolate stability against storage temperature. In this study, three levels of fat content, namely 30%, 32%, 34% and five palm sap sugar levels, namely 0%,25%,50%,75%,100% were used. The results showed that fat content, palm sap sugar proportion and their interaction significantly influenced the hardness of milk chocolate. Due to its moisture content, the hardness of chocolate increased as the proportion of palm sap sugar was increased. In contrast, at the same level of palm sap sugar proportion, the increase of fat content decreased the hardness of milk chocolate.