As much as we convince you of the greats benefits of dark chocolate, the rest of the types will not stop being that forbidden pleasure that we love, but that we have to avoid for their high fat content.
For this reason, many chocolate companies They have tried to find methods to reduce fat levels in their products, although the results have not been as expected, since the techniques used lead to a viscosity increase that clogs the tubes so this food flows into the factories.
However, a group of researchers from the Temple University, in Philadelphia, has designed a new method as curious as it is effective.
Reologa, the mechanism to obtain chocolate with less fat
The method devised by these scientists is based on the rheologyto a branch of physics who studies therelationship between stress and strain of those materials with the ability to flow.
In this specific case they have been based on the electroreology, since to modify the fluidity of the chocolate they have used a electric field.
How do you get a chocolate with less fat using electricity?
As you know, chocolate is mainly made up of cocoa, milk and sugar, which are interspersed with vegetable butters, like the cocoa butter itself.
This results in a high fat content which, as I said, until now has been very difficult to remove without negatively altering the properties of the product.
However, this new method ends these adverse effects by using a 1,600 volts per centimeter electric field which is applied in the same direction as the liquid chocolate flow, favoring that the solid cocoa particles clump together into short chains and spheroids, which move more aerodynamic, avoiding the problems derived from viscosity.
As a result, a product was obtained with a 40-50% less viscosity and therefore a 10% less fat, making chocolate a little less guilty pleasure.
The experiment was initially carried out with Mars chocolate, but then it was repeated with samples of other manufacturersobtaining similar results, so it is shown that the method can be effective for your implantation in the industry.
This is a very novel procedure, since the electric fields had been used before to increase viscosity applying them perpendicular to the flow of the liquid in question, but the opposite process had never been done, as in this case; which has turned out to be a success despite the need to adjust some parameters to optimize the results in the best possible way.
Until that happens, you will have to consume this delicious delicacy in moderation, as we have already recommended so many times.
