Intense research and development efforts within and outside the industry provide confectioners with healthier options.
If University of Guelph scientists Robert Lencki and John Craven are correct, they’re on the verge of providing chocolatiers with the industry’s version of the Holy Grail: a healthy fat that mimics cocoa butter in taste and functionality.
According to a recent article in the Globe & Mail, the two Toronto-based researchers have discovered the ultimate alternative to cocoa butter. As reporter Wency Leung writes, “…their solution lies in using a kind of fat called diacylglycerols, which the body metabolizes differently than the triacylglycerols of regular cocoa butter. Both fats are commonly found in food; the researchers liken them to sucrose and fructose, two natural sugars that are metabolized differently.”