Low fat chocolate. While it sounds too good to be true, physicists Rongjia Tao and Hong Tang from Temple University are hoping to make it a reality. They have devised a novel approach to manufacturing reduced-fat chocolate. Currently, in order to keep chocolate in a liquid state during production it needs a higher fat content – as much as 40 percent. The new method suggests the old process can be circumvented with the application of an electric field.
The technology involved in this process involves electrorheology. Electrorheology involves the manipulation of physical characteristics of a liquid, such as viscosity, through the application of an electrical field. In the process being developed by Temple University, the researchers found that when an electric field was applied in the flow direction of a liquid stream of chocolate the field acted to reduce the viscosity of the chocolate along that direction. The electric field acted to polarize the cocoa particles, allowing them to reorient and aggregate, making them short chains that flowed more easily. The viscosity of the chocolate liquid was made anisotropic, having a physical property that has a different value when measured in different directions. In this case, the viscosity of the chocolate was reduced only along the flow direction.
A reduction in viscosity means the chocolate can adequately flow at a lower minimum fat content. This new approach has the potential to reduce the chocolate’s fat content from 40 percent to 32 percent, according to the Temple University researchers. The researchers have patented this method in U.S. Patent No. 9,044,036 and U.S. Patent No. 9,198,446 and have received funding from Mars Chocolate.
While there is no guarantee this chocolate will hit the grocery store aisles any time soon, the potential for a lower-fat chocolate will likely excite manufacturers and sweet tooths alike.