Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, which means it’s time to buy chocolates and candies for that someone special. Or perhaps, you prefer healthier treats, in the form of fresh or dried fruits. Below are some recent papers published in ACS journals that investigate the complex way chocolate melts in the mouth, how Turkish delights are delightfully chewy and the best way to dry sweet cherries. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org.
Valorization of Sweet Cherries (Prunus avium) Using Different Drying Methods for Obtaining a Healthy Dried Product
ACS Food Science & Technology
Jan. 20, 2023
Chile is a major grower of sweet cherries, yet despite producing more than 445,000 tons of the fruit last year, around 17% failed to meet export standards. One way to add value to discarded cherries is to dry them. The researchers investigated several drying methods and found that drying them in the sun, the most common method, was detrimental to these compounds’ antioxidant potential. The best method was convective drying at around 150 F.
Insights into the Multiscale Lubrication Mechanism of Edible Phase Change Materials
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Jan. 12, 2023
The silky-smooth way a piece of chocolate melts in your mouth is not very well understood, scientifically speaking. To figure it out, these researchers built their own realistic tongue and novel tribomicroscopy technique. They found that fats in chocolate form tiny emulsion droplets that coalesce into a layer of film, leading to that “coating” feeling on the tongue. This knowledge could help create lower-calorie dark chocolates that still have good mouthfeel.
Effect of Different Syrup Types on Turkish Delights (Lokum): A TD-NMR Relaxometry Study
ACS Food Science & Technology
Nov. 30, 2022
Turkish delights are chewy candies cut into delicate cubes and dusted with powdered sugar. Alternatives sometimes use corn syrups or sweeteners instead of sugar, but do they hold up to the original? Here, scientists used time-domain NMR spectroscopy to investigate the crystallinity in candies made using sugar, corn syrup or allulose. They found that the low-calorie allulose candies were too soft and had difficulty holding their shape, whereas the corn syrup candies were firm and had an appealing color.
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