More consumers are looking for plant-based credentials in the chocolate aisle and brands in the category have responded accordingly with vegan and dairy-free chocolate products. Globally, the sector recorded a 24% compound annual growth rate for 2018 to 2020 with North America accounting for 21% of new plant-based chocolate launches, according to Innova Market Insights data.
And while there is clearly a lot of activity and consumer demand for chocolate products made without dairy, formulations have typically relied heavily on costly cocoa butter used in combination with lecithin, which has functional limitations, noted Palsgaard.
Dairy-free chocolate challenges
Removing milk fat to create a dairy-free version of chocolate is not an easy task, explained Arne Pendersen, regional application manager, bakery & confectionery, Palsgaard.
"When making plant-based chocolates you typically need to replace the milk components with other sugar and protein sources to get the milky-like appearance and mouthfeel," Pedersen told FoodNavigator-USA.
"Typically, these replacements will absorb more of the fat than the milk components with a resulting higher viscosity of the liquid chocolate and a more dry mouthfeel in the finished product. To avoid this, it is common to add 2 – 3% more cocoa butter to the recipe, which is very costly. Instead of adding more of the expensive cocoa butter, a replacement of lecithin with Palsgaard AMP 4455 will do the job."
To put the cost savings into perspective, for a medium-sized manufacturer producing 10,000 MT of chocolate a year, switching to AMP 445 and in the processing cutting down on the amount of cocoa butter used translates to savings of €700,000 (US$790,000), according to Palsgaard.
Breakthrough ingredient for plant-based chocolate? Palsgaard highlights high-performing lecithin replacement - FoodNavigator-USA.com
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