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Love chocolate? Scientists say they can electrify it to make it low fat and taste the same

By Lulu Chang Published September 28, 2020

Soon, you’ll be able to have your chocolate and eat it too. And you’ll have technology to thank for it. In a revelation that sounds like a scheme by Willy Wonka, physicists are now claiming that by applying electricity to chocolate, they can remove up to 20 percent of fat. Go find someone to hug right now.

Rongjia Tao of Temple University led the delectable experiment, whereby researchers ran liquid milk chocolate through an electrified sieve. And apparently, the finished product didn’t taste anything like the normal low fat stuff we resign ourselves to in the name of “health” and “figure.” Rather, scientists say, this chocolate tasted like, well, chocolate.

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Tao and his team first came up with the idea back in 2012, when consultants working for Mars Inc. asked the scientists to help liquid chocolate flow better through factory pipes, a key step in creating the solid bars. While improving viscosity generally requires adding more cocoa butter, Tao managed to find a way to avoid the added fat content and still make the process more efficient. And this discovery got the wheels in Tao’s head turning — if he could improve the flow of chocolate sans cocoa butter, shouldn’t he also be able to in fact reduce the amount of fat and keep the viscosity consistent?

By shocking chocolate, Tao found that they could make cocoa solids flatten out and line up, which made way for a smoother flow, all without the addition of cocoa butter. Tao is hoping to bring his new technology and the “healthier”version of chocolate to a store near you, and while Temple University currently owns the patent to this new method, commercialization may be in the future. According to Tao, chocolate makers could widely adopt this new method, as it only requires one additional piece of equipment.

So keep an eye out for electrified chocolate, and judge for yourself if low fat really can taste good.

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Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

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