Scientifically based production criteria for chocolate semi-finished products using fruit and vegetable powders

Chocolate glaze consists mainly of sugar (50%) and fat (35%) and is a high-calorie semi-finished product with a high content of simple carbohydrates. The standard for glaze provides the possibility of producing chocolate glaze with fruit and vegetable components, which reduces the content of simple carbohydrates. Studied and justified the criteria for the production of chocolate glazes with different contents of fruit and vegetable powders. Analysis of the rheological parameters of chocolate semi-finished products showed that the introduction of fruit and vegetable powder instead of part of the sugar leads to a significant change in the nature of the rheological behavior of the semi-finished product. The yield strength increases from 3.4 to 12.6 Pa as the proportion of fruit and vegetable powder in the formulation increases. In order to determine the effect of the production method on changes in the yield strength of fruit and vegetable chocolate glaze, a series of experiments was carried out. It was found that with a constant content of fruit and vegetable powder (11%), temperature, processing time and machine support, the resulting chocolate glazes differed in their rheological characteristics. It was found that the greatest reduction in the yield strength of fruit and vegetable chocolate glazes during the production process can be achieved by stage-by-stage grinding of the formulation components in a ball mill and the additional introduction of PGPR emulsifier at the conching stage. The quality of chocolate semi-finished products depends not only on rheological parameters, but also on crystallization properties. The developed chocolate glazes with different contents of the fruit and vegetable component were processed at a temperature of about 30 °C in a laboratory tempering machine in order to form and stabilize fat crystals in ?-form. Then, the temperindex was determined. It was found that, subject to the same tempering conditions, with an increase in the proportion of fruit and vegetable powder, the temperature of glazes increases. Glazes with a mass fraction of fruit and vegetable powder of more than 7% were distinguished by the properties of re-tempered semi-finished products - the presence of large fat crystals, a rough structure and the absence of surface gloss. In order to obtain the optimal temperature index of glazes with a content of fruit and vegetable raw materials of more than 7%, their tempering modes were developed.