Fortification of chocolates with high‐value‐added plant‐based substances: Recent trends, current challenges, and future prospects

Abstract

High consumption of delicious foods, such as chocolates, is considered excellent snacks, capable of converting from health‐threatening to great functional foods. The fortification of chocolates with high‐value‐added plant‐based substances might improve their healthful effects, nutritional properties, and shelf life. Chocolate could be an effective carrier for plant‐based substances delivery, and it could be an effective vehicle to treat and reduce the indications of disease, such as obesity, overweight, hypertension, stress, cardiovascular failure, congestive heart failure, and diabetes. Referring to the recent studies in chocolate fortification with high‐value‐added plant‐based substances, it seems that the recent trends are toward its therapeutic effects against noncommunicable diseases. Despite the undeniable functional effects of fortified chocolates, there are some challenges in the fortification way of chocolates. In other words, their functional characteristics, such as rheological and sensory attributes, may undesirably change. It seems that encapsulation techniques, such as spray drying, antisolvent precipitation, nanoemulsification, and liposomal encapsulation, could almost overcome these challenges. Thus, several studies focused on designing and fabricating nanoscale delivery systems with the aim of chocolate fortification, which is discussed.

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials on the health effects of chocolate enriched/fortified/supplemented with functional components

“…Comprehensive reviews have explored the potential biological activity, processing techniques, and fortification approaches used to enrich chocolate with bioactive compounds. 75,76 These reviews provided valuable insights into the mechanisms and potential health effects of enriched chocolate consumption.…”

Investigation of Antioxidant and Cytotoxicity Activities of Chocolate Fortified with Muscadine Grape Pomace

“…Previous studies have indicated that the maceration process can change the profile of bioactive compounds in grape pomace, and therefore influence the antioxidant activity [33,34]. The processing, especially when it involves lengthy thermal treatment and/or high shear, can also impact the antioxidant and anticancer activities of chocolates, because using high shear and thermal treatment during processing may have negative effects on the polyphenols which are considered the main source of antioxidants and anticancer agents [35]. Chocolates typically required a lengthy conching process, which subjects the ingredients to repeated crushing or shear and relatively high temperature (49-82 • C) for 12-96 h, to reduce particle size and develop flavors [36].…”