Optimization of prebiotic sucrose-free milk chocolate formulation by mixture design.

The purpose of the current research was to determine optimal situation by applying Simplex lattice mixture design for the formulation of prebiotic sucrose-free milk chocolate. Chocolate samples were prepared using two different sugar alcohols containing xylitol and maltitol along with galactooligosaccharide as prebiotic substance. The effects of sugar alcohols and prebiotic blends on rheological attributes and some physical characteristics were assessed. The outcomes represented the high coefficient of determination (≥ 90%) of fitted models. The optimization of the variables indicated that using 20.857 g maltitol, 7.131 g xylitol and 5.012 g galactooligosaccharide generated the optimized chocolate with the highest desirability (1.00) without undesirable changes in the rheological and physical properties. Furthermore, the optimum formulation was prepared to validate the optimum model. The sensory evaluation of the optimized formulation of chocolate pleased the consumer needs.