Low-fat chocolate created in Philadelphia

The latest chocolate discovery comes from Temple University in Philadelphia (USA). A group of researchers announced in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the possibility of reducing fat in chocolate, when in liquid form, by applying an electric field.

Rongjia Tao, professor of physics at Temple and lead author of the study, says that with the electric field the viscosity is lowered sufficiently to reduce fat and increase the density of the particles to maintain an adequate flow of chocolate during the manufacturing process. The key is to apply the electric field in the same direction as the flow of chocolate so that the solid particles of cocoa are grouped together in short chains. A method which is known as electro-rheology.