Effect of thermal and mechanical rejuvenation on the rheological behavior of chocolate

Abstract

Chocolate is known to undergo solid–liquid transition upon an increase in temperature as well as under application of deformation field. Upon sudden reduction in temperature from a molten state (or thermal rejuvenation), the rheological properties of chocolate evolve as a function of time under isothermal conditions, a behavior reminiscent of physical aging in polymeric glasses. Then again, subsequent to cessation of shear flow (or mechanical rejuvenation), chocolate shows temporal evolution of the rheological properties, a behavior similar to physical aging in soft glassy materials. In this work, we evaluate three rheological properties—dynamic moduli, relaxation time spectrum, and characteristic relaxation time of chocolate—and compare their evolution after thermal as well as mechanical rejuvenation. We observe that the evolution of the rheological properties subsequent to mechanical rejuvenation is distinctly different from that of thermal rejuvenation, wherein the evolution is more gradual in the former case. On the one hand, this work provides unique insights into how shear affects the rheological behavior of chocolate. On the other hand, this work clearly suggests that chocolate explores different sections of the energy landscape after mechanical rejuvenation compared to that of thermal rejuvenation.