Mondelēz claims breakthrough for improving chocolate flavours with product patent

Mondelēz researchers in the UK have claimed a significant reformulation breakthrough, seeking to claim a patent for calcium salt as having a key impact on improving chocolate ranges.

The global confectionery and snacks group believes its teams have hit upon the potential to enhance flavour profiles in terms of sweet, bitter and fruity notes within product series.

As with a number of other manufacturers, the company has been examining options for evaluating its overall confectionery offerings in light of consumers around the world increasingly demanding healthier snack options.

It has consequently devised its solution featuring calcium salt, which it believes has the right properties to enhance the overall taste of finished product ranges.

In its patent application the company said the taste of chocolate depended on many factors including  the origin and quality of the cocoa beans and other ingredients used and the processes that transform the cocoa beans in to the final products.

The business added that the improvement in taste of the chocolate is partially a result of the removal of undesirable flavour compounds during the conching process – which remains the key conventional manner in which chocolate is created.

As the confectionery giant noted, in general, the longer the conching period, the better the taste of the chocolate product. However, conching chocolate for a long time reduces the throughput of a chocolate making process and therefore increases the cost of producing products.

In addition, the company acknowledged that conching at higher temperatures could introduce undesirable cooked or burnt flavours, but it said the introduction of  additive compounds could be used as an effective production process. Mondelēz said that a solution to production challenges could be solved by particles of a calcium salt, which would be designed to be undetectable as particles in the mouth of a consumer and/or which have volume-based median particle diameter of less than 100 μm.

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