Many people are in love with chocolate, but they become a little wary when a whitish coating called a bloom appears on the confection’s surface. The coating contains fats, but plays a vital role in changing the appearance of chocolate and texture. Scientists have provided some tips in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces to avoid using blooms from forming.

Chocolates, along with other baked goods and confectionery products, are made using a mix of components that don't always stay in place. Occurrence of fat blooms is attributable to a situation when lipids from within a chocolate product wander to the surface.

According to the researchers, the lipids that are responsible move through pores and cracks in the chocolate. Solids cocoa butter is dissolved into a liquid from as they move. The researchers suggest that reducing the numbers of pores and the liquid cocoa butter content of chocolate could be a great fix to minimize blooms.

The new study saw X-ray carried out at DESY, providing deep knowledge about the formation of fat bloom. “Although fat blooming is perfectly harmless, it causes millions in damage to the food industry as a result of rejects and customer complaints. Despite this well known quality issue, comparatively little has been known until now about its root causes”, said the main author of the study, Svenja Reinke, from the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH).

The findings have been reported in the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces by the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces.

The study has provided deep insight into the development of fat bloom for the first time, said DESY scientist Dr. Stephan Roth, head of the P03 beamline at PETRA III, at which the experiments were conducted.