Stobbs Jarvis A, Ghazani Saeed M, Donnelly Mary-Ellen, Marangoni Alejandro G
Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
Canadian Light Source, Inc., 44 Innovation Boulevard Saskatoon, SK S7N 2 V3, Canada.
Cryst Growth Des. 2025 Apr 16;25(9):2764-2783. doi: 10.1021/acs.cgd.5c00269. eCollection 2025 May 7.
Tempering is a critical step in chocolate production, ensuring desirable properties such as gloss, snap, and bloom resistance. Traditionally, tempering has been understood through the lens of cocoa butter polymorphism, with a predominant focus on achieving Form V crystals, due to their sharp melting profile and associated macroscopic physical properties. However, this Perspective challenges the notion that Form V alone guarantees high-quality, bloom-resistant chocolate. Recent research suggests that polymorphism is only one aspect of chocolate quality. Multiscale structural analyses-including small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), ultrasmall-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS), small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and microcomputed tomography (μCT)-reveal that nanostructural to microstructural properties are key indicators of bloom susceptibility and can vary significantly, despite identical polymorphic phases. This Perspective proposes that tempering should be viewed as a hierarchical crystallization process, where nucleation rate, structural homogeneity, and microstructural organization play critical roles. A broader approach to tempering assessment-integrating microstructural probes alongside traditional solid-state characterization-may provide deeper insights into chocolate's mechanical stability and long-term bloom resistance. As supply chain fluctuations increasingly impact cocoa butter composition, this multiscale perspective could help manufacturers mitigate quality inconsistencies and adapt to cost-driven formulation changes that may otherwise compromise bloom resistance in tempered chocolate.
回火是巧克力生产中的关键步骤，可确保巧克力具有如光泽、脆度和抗起霜等理想特性。传统上，回火是通过可可脂多晶型的视角来理解的，主要侧重于形成V型晶体，因为其具有尖锐的熔化曲线和相关的宏观物理特性。然而，本文观点对仅靠V型晶体就能保证巧克力高质量和抗起霜性的观念提出了挑战。最近的研究表明，多晶型只是巧克力品质的一个方面。多尺度结构分析，包括小角X射线散射（SAXS）、超小角X射线散射（USAXS）、小角中子散射（SANS）和微计算机断层扫描（μCT），揭示出纳米结构到微观结构的特性是起霜敏感性的关键指标，尽管多晶型相同，这些指标仍可能有显著差异。本文观点提出，回火应被视为一个分级结晶过程，其中成核速率、结构均匀性和微观结构组织起着关键作用。一种更广泛的回火评估方法，即将微观结构探测与传统的固态表征相结合，可能会为巧克力的机械稳定性和长期抗起霜性提供更深入的见解。随着供应链波动对可可脂成分的影响日益增大，这种多尺度视角有助于制造商减轻质量不一致问题，并适应可能会削弱回火巧克力抗起霜性的成本驱动型配方变化。
