Avaliação sensorial e físico-química de chocolates tipos tradicional e diet

Abstract

Chocolate, originating from ancient civilizations, has won consumers for decades and is highly appreciated for its sensory characteristics, as well as being recently associated with health benefits. Its traditional formulation basically contains cocoa, cocoa butter, sugar and milk, and the diet version is sugar free. The objective of this study was to characterize sensorial and physico-chemically three brands of traditional type chocolate, milk, and three brands of diet type. All samples had moisture content below 3%, limit established by Brazilian legislation and pH close to neutrality. The chocolates presented no significant difference (p <0.05) for titratable total acidity, and showed water activity below 0.6, which indicates microbiological stability. Samples of the traditional type showed lower lipid content than those of the diet type, and all the chocolates presented coloration with tendency to red, yellow and lower values of luminosity, expected for brown color. The texture of the samples was evaluated for hardness, adhesiveness, elasticity, cohesion and chewing. All chocolates have been well accepted by the consuming public, for the appearance, color, aroma, flavor and overall impression attributes, except the chocolate brand B for flavor attribute.