Vegan Chocolate Formulation Using Plant-Based Fat Mixtures: A Study on Crystallization Phenomena

Due to increasing global demand for chocolate products and changes in consumer preferences chocolate manufacturers have recently started to explore novel solutions to reformulate chocolate. Milk fat equivalents and replacers (MFE, MFR) are mixtures of triglycerides from different plant-based sources that resemble milk fat in its physical properties; they are potential ingredients for vegan milk chocolate formulations. Here, we applied synchrotron X-ray scattering, polarized light microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry, to investigate the crystallization behavior of four selected commercial MFEs (MF1, 2, 3, 4), on their own and mixed with cocoa butter (CB). Chemical characterization revealed significant differences among samples, and with both milk fat (MF) and CB. Due to chemical similarity with CB, mixtures of samples MF2 and MF3 with CB, performed similarly to pure CB in terms of number, type and morphology of polymorphs crystallized. Despite significant differences in chemical composition, MF4 presented similar crystallization behavior, texture and solid fat content of MF. This is due to the high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids and the wide variety of triacylglycerides that characterize MF4. POP rich MF1 presented a specific polymorphic and thermal behavior, with the unstable b’ form persisting for longer times than all other samples