Quantification of physicochemical and microstructure properties of dark chocolate incorporated with palm sugar and dates as alternative sweetener

Abstract

Palm sap and dates sugar are two natural sweeteners having numerous chemical composition with sugar as its primary constituents and available for sugar replacement in food products. In this study, initial work was conducted to measure the influence of palm sap (CPS) and dates sugar (CDS) onto the physicochemical and mechanical properties when incorporated into dark chocolate. Samples for both palm sap and dates were processed in syrup form with sugar as the control sample. Results showed that the sugar-free dark chocolate samples (CPS and CDS) were resulting in the higher moisture content of 4.18% and 3.96%, respectively, that were approximately four-fold from the control sample 1.24%. Moreover, moisture content found to be inversely proportional to melting temperature, with the lowest was CPS with 42 °C. Microstructure observation indicated that moisture may induce agglomerations with CDS that contain high moisture to be most agglomerated. The hardness measurements showed that CPS had the smallest aptitude to hold load with measured penetration of 180 g/s, hence a softer texture. Concerning chocolate appearance, the color was not affected. However, roughness was observed to increase. Both sugar-free samples were determined to be accepted well by the sensory panelist.