Lecithin – A Powerful Emulsifier For Chocolate Production

Over the past few decades, lecithin has become an indispensable ingredient in chocolate manufacturing, because it naturally improves the flow behavior of the chocolate mixture and simultaneously serves to reduce the amount of cocoa butter

Several times other emulsifiers have been tested for this specific application, but none of them had the same economic efficiency as the active ingredient lecithin.

In the production of chocolate and coating compositions, the surface active properties of the phospholipids contained in the lecithin are used to adjust the flow properties of the masses. It is assumed that the PL fractions (in particular PC, PE) of lecithin accumulate on the surfaces of the solids in the chocolate (sugar, cocoa solids, milk powder, etc.) and thus reduce the interfacial energy.

In this way, immobilized cocoa butter is released from the solid surfaces and is available for flow. This leads to a lower viscosity with the same total fat content. In addition, the emulsifier addition reduces the interaction between the solid particles. These are distributed more homogeneously and the yield value, which results from particle/particle contacts in the chocolate mass, is reduced.

Due to the orientation of the lecithin molecules, the internal friction in the fat / sugar system is reduced and the formation of chainor netlike fatty substance structures is counteracted.