Low calorie cocoa-based products: a short review.

Abstract

Globally, cocoa is considered an extensively consumed flavor across the food and beverage industry. However, the majority of cocoa products have a large amount of sugar and fat content. Therefore, manufacturers of cocoa-based products are focusing on the commercialization of healthier and innovative cocoa products that contain sugar and fat. High-quality and low-calorie cocoa products can be developed using the right ingredients which can replace fat and sugar without negative impact on the product characteristics. For sugar replacement nutritive sweeteners or sugar alcohols, non-nutritive sweeteners or high potency sweeteners and low digestibility carbohydrates are generally used. For fat substitution cocoa butter equivalents, cocoa butter replacers, cocoa butter substitutes along with vegetable fat and oil replacers are used. This review discusses the effect of sugar and fat substitution on the textural and rheological properties, sensory acceptance, and calorific value of the end cocoa-based products.