Formulation and production of functional chocolate with carob pod powder as substitute for cocoa powder

Chocolate is one of the foods that has special place among people and most of the people consume this energetic food. If this product has got the health effects section, it will be noted more than the past. Therefore, using foods, which have more health benefits than cocoa, in formulation and preparation of chocolate, will make glowing future for this product. One of the effective approaches in this field is the carob pod powder. In this research, Chocolate samples with replacement levels of 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent along with standard sample were produced and effects of substitution of cocoa powder by carob pod powder on physicochemical, textural and rheological properties of dark chocolate was investigated. Increasing levels of carob pod powder in the formulation, compared with the standard, gave the products lighter color. Outcomes of investigating the hardness of the products indicated that, samples containing higher amounts of carob pod powder, have less textural hardness, which can be because of the particle size distribution and the fibrous properties of the carob pod powder. About rheological models, it was found that the Herschel- bulkly model was the best fit model for the chocolate samples. Chocolate samples were assessed for sensory acceptance by a hedonic scale, samples containing 25 and 50 percent of carob pod powder had the highest acceptability even more than the standard. The results proved that it is possible to utilize carob pod powder to replace cocoa powder in chocolate production in order to improve nutritional values with agreeable sensory attributes.