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Home > Maltitol News > Press Articles > Chocolate: sugar-free formulations with maltitol
Chocolate: sugar-free formulations with maltitol
May 2004
Sugar-free formulations with maltitol
Marc RenauldReproduced courtesy of Confectionery Production magazine
Chocolate has not escaped consumer's growing nutritional concerns as illustrated by annual average growth rates of more than 30% in sales of sugar-free chocolate in both the USA & northern Europe over the past three years.
Obesity and weight control are terms that are constantly being heard and recently the WHO/FAO recommended that no more than 10% of energy requirements should be met from simple sugars.
However, preserving the sweetness, flavour and smoothness of a product traditionally considered a treat, presents a challenge to any manufacturer wishing to offer it in a sugar-free form.
When it comes to making high-quality, sugar-free chocolates, crystalline maltitol is the substitute of choice, thanks to a sweetening power and taste profile comparable to those of sucrose. Also, because it can be substituted on a simple weight-for-weight basis and avoids the need to include additional intense sweeteners or fat, it is easy to use and allows existing processes or formulations to be retained.
Chocolate made with crystalline maltitol offers all the benefits demanded by health-conscious consumers - it has a reduced caloric value, very low glycaemic index and may be safe for teeth.
Traditional chocolates contain anything from 30% to 55% sugars (mainly sucrose, but also lactose in the case of milk chocolates) and to act as a substitute for sucrose in chocolate applications, a good bulk sweetener needs the following characteristics:
- High sweetness and a taste close to that of sucrose
- Low cooling effect
- High solubility
- High melting point
- Low hygroscopicity
- High crystallinity
- Low water content
- Low specific surface area
It must also be very easily refined, conched, tempered and stored, easy to formulate and offer nutritional benefits.
A range of sucrose substitutes can be found on the market, including fructose, which is used in dietetic chocolate formulations, as it has a weak glycaemic index close to that of maltitol. However, it demands reduced conching temperatures to avoid particle agglomeration during manufacture and the finished product shows a high degree of hygroscopicity.
In sugar-free chocolates, polyols are used as bulk sweeteners to substitute sucrose and thanks to its outstanding technological and organoleptic properties, maltitol is by far the most commonly used.
Organoleptic characteristics of maltitol-based chocolate
Sweetness and flavour notes
The high sweetness of maltitol makes it possible to produce a chocolate without the addition of intense sweeteners such as aspartame. This contrasts with the polyols isomalt or lactitol, whose lower sweetness levels make the inclusion of intense sweeteners absolutely necessary. Also, maltitol has a clean, sweet taste compared to fructose, which is sharp.
Maltitol-based dark and milk chocolates (56% et 39% cocoa respectively) were tasted by a trained panel of 12 people (BARRY-CALLEBAUT, Meulan, France) and compared with similar sucrose-based chocolates
| Organoleptic comparaison of bitter chocolate (56 % cocoa content) | ||
| Sugar-free bitter chocolate with maltitol | Traditional bitter chocolate with sucrose | |
| Crystalline maltitol MALTISORB® | 43,6 |
- |
|
Sucrose |
- | 43,6 |
| Cocoa mass | 43,6 | 43,6 |
| Cocoa butter | 12,3 | 12,3 |
| Lecithin | 0,5 | 0,5 |
| Total | 100,0 | 100,0 |
| Organoleptic comparaison of milk chocolate (39 % cocoa content) | ||
| No-sugar-added milk chocolate with maltitol |
Traditional milk chocolate with sucrose | |
| Crystalline maltitol MALTISORB® | 43,0 | - |
|
Sucrose |
- | 43,0 |
| Cocoa mass | 16,0 | 16,0 |
| Cocoa butter | 23,0 | 23,0 |
| Dried whole milk | 14,0 | 14,0 |
| Dried skimmed milk | 3,5 | 3,5 |
| Lecithin | 0,5 | 0,5 |
| Total | 100,0 | 100,0 |
Mouthfeel
The high solubility of maltitol makes it suitable for a chocolate that is entirely smooth and non-sandy in texture, e.g. it melts in the mouth. Such smoothness also depends on the final particle size of the chocolate, obtained through refining. Chocolate with maltitol is ground without any difficulty to a particle size below the level detectable by the tongue (under 25-30 µm).
MALTISORB® maltitol is available in three particle sizes. Standard MALTISORB® P 200 can be used in the classic roll refining process, while other particle sizes are helpful when refining is less efficient, in which case finer particle size distribution is needed.
| MALTISORB® | P 200 Crystalline powder | Average particle size Mean diameter 200 microns approx. |
|
MALTISORB® |
P 90 Crystalline powder | Fine particle size Mean diameter 90 microns approx. |
| MALTISORB® | P 35 Crystalline powder | Very fine particle size Mean diameter 35 microns approx. |
Importance of physico-chemical properties in the manufacture of maltitol-based chocolate
Crystalline form, melting point
The high crystallinity and melting point of MALTISORB® maltitol allow refining and conching conditions equivalent to those of sucrose-based chocolate. A high melting point is essential to prevent the significant formation of amorphous forms that occur at high temperatures; these forms must be avoided in chocolate products as they may cause water uptake and a resultant increase in viscosity.
Water content and hygroscopicity
The anhydrous form of MALTISORB® maltitol eliminates any risk of water release during conching, thus avoiding a possible related increase in viscosity. Dry conching is possible, allowing the optimisation of conching time and efficiency. In the case of dark chocolate, conching temperature can reach 80°C without problems. A high conching temperature eliminates undesirable cocoa flavour components and improves the chocolate flavour.
The low hygroscopicity of maltitol limits the risk of moisture uptake in chocolate during manufacture (kneading, refining, conching, tempering, moulding) and storage. The shelf life of chocolate made with maltitol is equal to that of the sucrose-based counterpart.
Crystalline form and specific surface area
Together with fat content, the crystal shape of the sweetener influences the rheology of chocolate to a major extent, as the greater the specific surface area (as is the case for sorbitol and isomalt, for instance), the higher the fat absorption, enabling the resulting increase in chocolate viscosity to be balanced by higher cocoa fat content. MALTISORB® maltitol is a polyol with a bi-pyramidal structure, which tends to break into crystals of small specific surface area during refining. This explains why a chocolate containing maltitol does not require more fat than a sucrose-based one to achieve the same level of viscosity.
Chocolate formulation and rheology
In chocolate applications, maltitol can replace sucrose weight for weight, allowing easy formulation: substituting it in this way in a traditional recipe for chocolate - and without changing any of the other ingredients - will result in a no-sugar-added, but no less tasty product.
In rheological studies, MALTISORB® maltitol-based chocolate proves to be little different from a sucrose-based counterpart in terms of rheological characteristics. The Casson viscosity remains unchanged. Maltitol allows applied tempering temperatures to be the same as those for sucrose-based chocolates. Well-controlled tempering of maltitol-based chocolates results both in easy de-moulding and in good snap.
Nutritional benefits
MALTISORB® is:
- Sugar-free
- Appropriate for use in a carbohydrate-controlled diet due to its low glycaemic index, comparable to that of fructose. Furthermore, crystalline maltitol is the only polyol currently used in chocolate that simultaneously combines the highest digestive tolerance factor with a very low glycaemic index. Both are valuable features for chocolate, a product increasingly consumed as a snack right through the day.
- 40% less caloric than sucrose in Europe.
- Safe for teeth: MALTISORB® is neither acidogenic nor cariogenic. As such, finished products made with MALTISORB® and not incorporating any fermentable substances may bear the 'Toothfriendly' logo.
Conclusion
Due to functional and organoleptic properties very close to those of sucrose, crystalline maltitol MALTISORB® allows the production of great-tasting chocolate products using the traditional chocolate manufacturing process. As an ideal sucrose substitute its nutritional properties offer a wider variety of sugar-free options to today's health-conscious consumers.
Author : Marc Renauld is Market Development Manager at Roquette Frères - 62080 Lestrem (France)
For further information contact
E-mail: foodbusiness@roquette.com
Or tel: + 33 3 21 63 36 00
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