FDBusiness.com

Cargill’s cocoa & chocolate business has unveiled the breakthrough technology behind the first chocolate to achieve an EU-approved consumer claim of ‘reduced calorie’. The 30% calorie reduction is double that of any other chocolate on the market and is equivalent to a saving of up to 160 calories for a 100g chocolate bar.

The innovation has been achieved through applying Cargill’s chocolate expertise to an innovative process using a patented blend of sweeteners, including Cargill’s zero-calorie bulk sweetener, Zerose erythritol.

Zerose erythritol is the only polyol which is recognised as zero-calorie, is produced by a fermentation process and does not exhibit the digestive intolerance that can be associated with other polyols. Erythritol occurs naturally in nature in fruits such as grapes, and in fermented foods and drinks, such as wine and soy sauce. It is also recognised as ‘toothfriendly’ by Toothfriendly International, as it does not cause tooth decay.

As an alternative to the reduced calorie claim, the Cargill innovation also offers two further benefits to manufacturers using chocolate as an ingredient: they can reduce the calorie level per portion; or they can use more chocolate in their product for the same calorie amount.

Expected to be available commercially next year, the innovation demonstrates the pioneering results that are produced from the powerful combination of Cargill’s broad food ingredients knowledge coupled with its deep chocolate expertise.