Effect of structure on the mechanical and physical properties of chocolate considering time scale phenomena occurring during oral processing

Experimental and numerical evaluation of the effect of micro-aeration on the thermal properties of chocolate

“…Understanding the effect of micro-aeration on the melting behaviour of chocolate will assist the design of food products with optimum sensorial properties. 35…”

“…12 Our recent work has highlighted the need for coupling the mastication step with the thermal behaviour of chocolate in order to draw conclusive arguments regarding the chocolate's breakdown during oral processing. 35 It is believed these processes together guide the chocolate's transition from solid to liquid phase and perhaps the final properties of the bolus. Understanding the effect of micro-aeration on the melting behaviour of chocolate will assist the design of food products with optimum sensorial properties.…”

“…Our recent work on the effect of micro-aeration on chocolate structure, mechanical, and sensory properties during oral processing highlighted the importance of heat transfer and chocolate melting on the structural breakdown during mastication that is expected to alter its’ perceived consumer experience. 35 It was found that the combined action of heat transfer and fragmentation guides chocolate oral processing after the first bite. The need to compute the true properties of the micro-porous chocolate under thermal conditions relevant to oral processing remained as previous work only used macroscale analytical models to predict the effects of micro-aeration on the thermal properties of chocolate rather than an extensive micro-FEM calculation, i.e.…”

“…This effort reflects food industry's needs to investigate how small structural changes, such as low levels of porosity, can change material and sensorial properties of chocolate during oral processing that affect the consumer experience. 35 Measurements on a novel heat transfer rig and a commercially available DSC instrument are coupled to a multiscale finite element model to predict the thermal temporal response produced by these different porous structures. The multiscale numerical model is composed of a heat transfer model at the microscale to compute the average (effective) thermal properties of the resulting porous material which are then used in a heat transfer model at the macroscale to predict the experimental results.…”

“…Our recent work on the effect of micro-aeration on chocolate structure, mechanical, and sensory properties during oral processing highlighted the importance of heat transfer and chocolate melting on the structural breakdown during mastication that is expected to alter its' perceived consumer experience. 35 It was found that the combined action of heat transfer and fragmentation guides chocolate oral processing after the first bite. The need to compute the true properties of the…”