RHEOLOGICAL AND TEXTURAL PROPERTIES OF COCOA SPREAD CREAM WITH SUNFLOWER LECITHIN

Sunflower lecithin, together with commonly used soy lecithin, is a by-product of degumming of crude oil during refining process and can be defined as a mixture of phospholipids, residual oil and minor components. This paper investigated the influence of sunflower lecithin on rheological and textural characteristics of cocoa spread cream. Cocoa spread cream samples were made with the addition of 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7% of sunflower lecithin, with a milling time of 40 and 50 minutes in a laboratory ball mill. The results are compared with the results obtained for rheological and textural analyses of standard cocoa spread cream with soy lecithin added. Cocoa cream spread samples with the addition of all applied concentration of soy lecithin in milling time range of 40 to 50 minutes show lower values of thixotropic curve area, mean viscosity and Casson viscosity, but higher values of Casson yield stress, compared with cocoa cream samples with sunflower lecithin. Optimal concentration of soy lecithin is 0.5% with retention time of 40 minutes in laboratory ball mill, while addition of 0.7% of soy lecithin increases complexity of cocoa spread cream, but reduces Casson viscosity. On the other hand, the addition of 0.7% of sunflower lecithin and milling time of 50 minutes show the lowest values of rheological parameters. Cocoa cream samples with sunflower lecithin have lower values of textural parameters comparing with samples with standard soy lecithin.