Physicochemical and sensory properties of chocolate spread prepared with blended oil organogels

Chocolate spread contains raw materials which has high sugar and fat content, resulting in a high calorie value. Many studies have showed that the consumption of food products that are high in energy and saturated fatty acids may lead to chronic non-communicable diseases. Therefore, this study was interested in investigating the physicochemical properties, shelf life and sensory evaluation of of blended oil organogel chocolate spreads (OG-CS) and commercial chocolate spreads (C-CS). This is to obtain a chocolate spread product with a balanced fatty acid composition which contain zero trans-fat and low saturated fatty acid.

The results revealed that OG-CS had firmness value ranging from 0.34 to 0.51 N and work of shear value ranging from 1.13 to 2.42 N.mm that less than C-CS. All samples were observed to have peroxide value and acid value in the range of 1.56 – 1.85 meg/kg and 0.83-1.12 mg KOH/ g, respectively. In contrast, OG-CS exhibited higher oil release compared to C-CS. Sensory evaluation revealed that OG-CS-1 had the highest flavor, taste, and overall acceptance score and was not significantly different from the C-CS. The shelf life of OG-CS-1 at refrigerated storage conditions (4 - 5 degrees Celsius), the shelf life was 12 months. This result indicated that blended oil organogels can be used as a replacement for solid fats in chocolate spread products.