FOOD PRODUCTS HAVING ENHANCED COCOA POLYPHENOL CONTENT AND PROCESSES FOR PRODUCING SAME

摘要

The invention provides food products, including confectioneries and chocolates, having conserved concentrations of polyphenols, and in particular cocoa polyphenols. The method of this invention avoids the significant and detrimental polyphenol losses that occur during conventional manufacture by controlling the handling of ingredients in the batching process to provide a product containing a significant amount of the cocoa polyphenols present in the raw materials used to formulate the finished product. Additionally, the milling/refining and conching steps may also be controlled and modified to provide confectioneries having conserved concentrations of cocoa polyphenois relative to the cocoa polyphenol-concentration of the starting ingredients. The cocoa polyphenol containing ingredient may be a cocoa extract, chocolate liquor, partially defatted cocoa solids, and/or synthetic polyphenol.