High internal phase agar hydrogel dispersions in cocoa butter and chocolate as a route towards reducing fat contentElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c3fo60122f

Reducing the fat content of chocolate formulations is a major challenge for the confectionery industry. We report the suspension of aqueous microgel agar particles of up to 80% v/v within sunflower oil, cocoa butter, and ultimately chocolate. The optimised emulsification process involves a shear-cooling step. We demonstrate the versatility of our method when applied to white, milk, and dark chocolate formulations, whilst preserving the desired polymorph V of the cocoa butter matrix. In addition, we show that this technology can be used as a strategy to disperse alcoholic beverages into chocolate confectionery. We show that the dispersion of agar microgels into chocolate formulations can be used to reduce fat content, and also allows for the introduction of alcoholic beverages whilst preserving the desired polymorph V of the cocoa butter matrix.