Consumers want tasty chocolate confectionery that melts quickly in the mouth. Yet in hotter climates, where the ambient temperature can sit well above 30°C, chocolate risks losing its desired taste, structure or shape before reaching the consumer.
Confectionery giant Mars, Inc. has patented a packaged heat-resistant chocolate that it says maintains these key attributes, even in warmer countries.
Achieving desired melting profile
“Much of the desirable chocolate candy eating experience relates to the ability to melt quickly and completely to provide the consumer with a lubricating and pleasing eating experience,” explained Mars in the international patent.
Often manufacturers rely on cocoa butter – in differing quantities – to help provide that melting profile for the consumer. Cocoa butter’s melting point sits around 37° C, so as the confectioner described it, the ingredient provides ‘the desirable melting profile on ingestion’, and is a ‘great component of the desired consumption experience’.
However, ensuring the chocolate melts to the consumer’s standards can have knock-on effects from a manufacturing, shipping, or handling standpoint.
In hotter climates, for example, where the ambient temperature sits at 37°C or higher, chocolate’s ability to melt quickly and completely can become a storage or product quality concern.
“These concerns may be exacerbated in regions where economic circumstances are not favourable for the widespread use of refrigerated storage,” Mars elaborated.
Improved heat resistance
The confectioner has therefore invented a product that delivers the ‘desired organoleptic experience’ while substantially maintaining shape or structure during transportation, storage, or other handling, even at elevated temperatures.
Specifically, the method concerns a packaged chocolate composition comprising a polyol – or sugar replacer – with a boiling point of at least 105 ° C. The chocolate has improved heat resistance, and is made up of at least one other ‘thermal structuring component’, made with a simple sugar, such as dextrose, glucose, fructose, or galactose.
And ultimately, the heat resistance of its chocolate compositions is improved by packaging in a multilayer container, Mars explained.
The multilayer container comprises of an inner layer, which is itself made up of a thin sheet and covered with a fatty fibrous layer. That fibrous layer, made from parchment paper, is in contact with the chocolate composition.
The package may also include aesthetic elements, such as dimples, cords, ripples, knots, Mars added.
Source: WIPO International Patent No : ES2745216
Publication date: 28 February 2020
Title: Chocolate Resistente Al Calor Envasado (Packaged Heat Resistant Chocolate)
Inventors: Barry David Glazier, Karyn Wild, Joanna Wentzel, Mary Myers, Marilyn Hess, Shirley Lease, David Hausman, Robert M. Friedman, Connie Williams, Colleen Kramer (Mars, Inc.)
