Chocolate with a low-fat core can still be sumptuous.

Fat on the outside of chocolate may be key to its mouthfeel, suggesting that the fat content can be reduced in the center without sacrificing mouthfeel.

Chocolate high in fat on the outside but low in fat in the center can provide the same good taste and melting texture but with fewer calories, the researchers say.

To study the factors that determine how chocolate tastes in the mouth, Anvesha Sarkar from the University of Leeds, UK, and her colleagues used a 3D-printed silicone tongue to mimic the texture and elasticity of a human tongue.

As fats melt in the mouth, droplets are formed that are thought to create the pleasant feel and texture of chocolate. The team found that the fats on the surface of chocolate are the most important of all. Thereafter, the cocoa solids in the chocolate become important to the perception.

“We realized that fat is definitely a very important material. [to the enjoyable taste of chocolate]but no need to distribute fat [throughout the chocolate]”, says Sarkar. “The main place where the fat content matters is the surface layer. Once you start eating chocolate by breaking it into pieces, you don’t get as much benefit from the fat content.”

Sarkar says this should allow chocolates to be created with only fat on the surface, which would still result in a nice melting sensation, but with fewer calories inside.

If the mechanism of nutrition is better understood, she says, it will be possible to develop healthier foods that retain pleasant tastes and sensations. But it’s still too early to tell exactly how much fat can be removed from chocolate before flavor is compromised.

Barry Smith of the School of Advanced Study in London says he is skeptical that fat glaze alone can give the same feel as regular chocolate.

“Ideally you could redistribute the fat so it’s on the outside instead of leaking out and somehow still achieve the structure you want with the melting speed doing what it’s supposed to do is just perfect, but that’s very, very difficult to achieve.” “, – he said. He speaks.

“Eating a piece of chocolate is a multi-sensory experience. You have to have texture, smell, taste and all that alignment to deliver this little time sequence of transition from something solid to something smooth and gooey in such a luxurious way. It’s hard to combine them. So I don’t think messing around with one parameter is a guaranteed way forward.”

The researchers believe that the physical methods used in the study could be used to study other foods that undergo phase transitions – for example, when a substance changes from solid to liquid – such as ice cream, margarine or cheese.