Effects of fat replacement and fibre addition on the texture, sensory acceptance and structure of sucrose-free chocolate

Dietary fibre has been employed as a sucrose and fat replacement in chocolates and can influence the physical and sensory characteristics of the resulting product. Formulations of sucrose-free chocolates were developed with the addition of inulin and -glucan concentrate as partial substitutes for cocoa butter using a mixture design. The effects of the combinations of the three ingredients provided for the design on the texture, microstructure and sensory acceptance of the chocolates were investigated. The substitution of cocoa butter for inulin or -glucan concentrate decreased the hardness of the chocolates. It was possible to replace 10g of cocoa butter in a 100-g control formulation with inulin and still maintain good acceptance, while this same substitution with -glucan resulted in less acceptable chocolate, with a mean score of 6.4 on a scale from 0 to 10. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the effects of fibre addition by observing the developed microstructure.