An approach to manufacturing heat-stable and bloom-resistant chocolate by the combination of oleogel and sweeteners

Producing heat-stable, bloom-resistant chocolate is a significant challenge faced by the food industry. This study prepared oleogels using palm oil as a base oil and monoglyceride stearate as an oleogelator, which were introduced into partially substituted cocoa butter (CB) (30% w/w) to manufacture heat-stable, bloom-resistant chocolate. In addition, various healthy sweeteners (maltitol (M), tagatose (T), and palm sap sugar (PS)) were used (corresponding chocolate noted as Choc M100, Choc T5 & T10, and Choc PS25 & PS50, respectively) at different substitution ratios to sucrose . The melting properties and fat blooming behavior were characterized to optimize the suitable recipe for the chocolate. According to the results, Choc PS50 exhibited the required crystal form (β-form), improved the shape retention index (SRI), displayed a higher melting enthalpy ( Δ H m ) and ideal fat bloom-resistance, while showing fewer superficial crystals during temperature cycling (16 h at 20 °C and 8 h at 32 °C for 40 d). Nevertheless, the formulated chocolates exhibited significantly lower hardness due to the reduced CB content. This study provided an approach to manufacturing heat-stable, bloom-resistant chocolate.