Chocolate: Production, Consumption & Health Benefits

This book provides new research on the production, consumption and health benefits of chocolate. Chapter One discusses chocolate as an important carrier of trace elements, and helps to overcome trace element deficiencies, particularly, if ingestion of vegetables, dairy products and wholemeal bread is too low. Chapter Two shows the crystallisation characteristics of cocoa butter by presenting its thermal and polymorphic behaviors, as well as discusses the improvement on the physical properties of chocolate formulated with cocoa butter alternatives (CBAs) addition, and their compatibility attributes in the lipid network. Chapter Three discusses production of chocolate with soy milk in a ball mill. Chapter Four examines the sustainability of three strains of probiotics in milk chocolate. Chapter Five identifies the sensory profile consumers preference of a typical Sicilian chocolate. Chapter Six provides a short overview of commonly used sweeteners and fat replacements, along with their impact on physico-chemical and nutritional properties of chocolate. Chapter Seven focuses on a descriptive and hedonistic approach to chocolate cream spread. Chapter Eight provides an overview on the anti-inflammatory effects of cocoa flavanols observed in vitro and to judge the evidence for such effects from randomised controlled trials (RCT).