Baking & Snack - December 2006 - 75

healthier comes down to increasing
antioxidant content while reducing
sugar and calories.
Acticoa, a new technology from Barry
Callebaut, preserves polyphenols and
antioxidants. While normal processing
of cocoa can reduce the natural polyphenol content in chocolate by 70%, the
Acticoa process reduces only 20% of the
polyphenols and keeps in such important ones as eticatechin and procyanidin B2, according to Kenneth P. Cotich,
Barry Callebaut's director of corporate
accounts, North America.
Barry Callebaut uses the Acticoa technology in making finished chocolate,
cocoa powder and chocolate liquor. The
amount of polyphenols in these potential chocolate ingredients will stay the
same even when further processing is
done by grain-based foods companies,
Mr. Cotich said. "Once it's in there, you
don't lose anything through further
processing," he said.
Barry Callebaut also offers sugarreduced chocolate, he said. The company uses the natural sweetness of
the cocoa bean to replace 30 to 65% of
normal chocolate's sugar with cocoa-

bean-origin dietary fiber. Sugars can be
reduced by up to 65%. Calories can be
reduced by up to 15%. For example, in
100 g of chocolate, calories can fall to
476 from 560 Cal and sugars can fall to
17.2 g from 50.4 g. Dietary fiber, meanwhile, can increase to 19.6 g from 1.7 g.
Cargill, Minneapolis, MN, is aware
of the impacts of various stages of the
processes on antioxidant levels in cocoa and chocolate products, but the
company is not altering its process to
maintain antioxidant levels, according
to John Urbanski, vice-president, technical sales and service, Cargill Cocoa
and Chocolate. "This is because many
of the potential process changes would
alter the flavor profiles of products, and
this is not something our customers are
asking us to do," he said.
Cargill is investigating the antioxidant content of its cocoa and chocolate
products and taking part in industry
symposiums and conferences dealing with chocolate and health. "We
are not actively promoting products
based on product-specific values,"
Mr. Urbanski said.
Dark chocolate especially has drawn

praise for its antioxidant content. Increasing cocoa mass reduces the sugar
content of chocolate and darkens it,
according to Mr. Urbanski. Mr. Cotich
said that Barry Callebaut's Acticoa
technology can be used with both dark
chocolate and milk chocolate.

TAKE CARE WITH CLAIMS
Making claims about chocolate's health
benefits can draw the attention of the
Food and Drug Administration. Or so
Mars, Inc. found out.
In 2005, Mars, based at Hackettstown, NJ, established a new business
unit called Mars Nutrition for Health
& Well-Being to explore the health benefits of cocoa. The unit soon launched
the CocoaVia line of chocolate products,
which touted heart health benefits.
FDA found "serious violations" of the
Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act

ᮢ The Acticoa process for turning fresh
cacao beans into cocoa and chocolate
reduces the loss of the native polyphenols to -20% from the -70% encountered
during standard processing.
Barry Callebaut

% polyphenols (Folin - Ciocalteu)

10
8
6
4
2
0

Standard cocoa process
Polyphenol content measured at:
Fresh beans
Fermentation

78 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2006

Acticoa process
Drying

Roasting

Alkalization

Liquid storage

Baking & Snack - December 2006

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