12/11/2014
Palsgaard A/S

Chocolate emulsifier offers lecithin-beating functionality

by Peter Poulsen, International Sales Manager, Bakery & Confectionery, Palsgaard A/S. Every chocolate manufacturer wants a cost-effective and stable control over the viscosity of any type of chocolate – regular or low fat – without the taste or odour downsides of lecithin. Danish-based Palsgaard A/S recently released with Palsgaard® AMP 4455 a state-of-the-art ammonium phosphatide chocolate emulsifier (also known as AMP, Emulsifier YN or E442.) which according to the company offers a solution for this problem.

by Peter Poulsen, International Sales Manager, Bakery & Confectionery, Palsgaard A/S.

Every chocolate manufacturer wants a cost-effective and stable control over the viscosity of any type of chocolate – regular or low fat – without the taste or odour downsides of lecithin. Danish-based Palsgaard A/S recently released with Palsgaard® AMP 4455 a state-of-the-art ammonium phosphatide chocolate emulsifier (also known as AMP, Emulsifier YN or E442.) which according to the company offers a solution for this problem.

The new product has the ability to out-perform lecithin without the usual downsides of lecithin and at far lower dosages. Lecithin has been included in chocolate recipes for more than 60 years, acting as a functional and reasonably efficient ingredient when it comes to adjusting flow properties and reducing fat content in chocolate. But it’s not without its drawbacks. E.g. the soy-based variety used in the confectionery industry depends on the harvests from year to year and region to region. One the one hand this means fluctuations in supply and prices. One the other the performance of lecithin is highly dependent upon the purity of its raw materials.

Palsgaard® AMP 4455 (E442) is independent from such difficulties. It’s based on highly consistent and obtainable, non-GMO raw materials, so its quality is constant. And Palsgaard® AMP 4455 has been documented to outperform normal types of lecithin used by the chocolate industry at all dosage levels – both when producing chocolate and compound chocolate. 

AMP has been used by the confectionery industry as a chocolate emulsifier since the late 1950’s where it was developed, and is well known as a strong alternative to lecithin types such as GMO and non-GMO soy lecithin, sunflower lecithin and rapeseed lecithin. 

Palsgaard identified AMP many years ago as potentially the best and most functional viscosity-reducing chocolate emulsifier. And the company has been unrelenting in its efforts to realise this potential, working closely with customers to re-approach and refine every aspect of an AMP-based solution to manufacturers’ challenges.

Palsgaard’s new AMP-based product is primarily manufactured using a combination of refined and deodorised sunflower oil and glycerine, making it a 100%-vegetable based product. At the same time, all the raw materials used by Palsgaard are kosher and halal-certified.

Using fewer raw materials to obtain the same result is a key aim for any manufacturer. And this is where Palsgaard® AMP 4455 has its advantage. It’s possible to use as little as 40 percent of the dosage required with any of the lecithin types mentioned above. The actual required dosage depends on a number of factors, including the chocolate system  and the current total fat content of the chocolate produced. For many manufacturers, a level approaching half the current dosage levels will be more realistic. But even the most extreme reductions claimed by Palsgaard have been consistently demonstrated in trials with chocolates using 0.4 and 0.5 percent lecithin dosages.

For many chocolate manufacturers, the main barrier to using lecithin is the so-called ‘thickening effect’ – an increase in yield value that usually happens at lecithin dosages in the range from 0.4 to 0.5 percent. Increasing the dosage of Palsgaard® AMP 4455 doesn’t increase yield value. Instead, manufacturers can dose up to one percent AMP to achieve the desired viscosity reduction. 

Ideally, any ingredient used to control the viscosity of chocolate should achieve the same effect with every batch. The stable functionality of Palsgaard® AMP 4455 is achieved by making sure that each new batch meets the specified viscosity reduction in chocolate via a pre-testing programme called the Viscosity Reducing Power (VPR) method. VPR, which is specially designed for AMP, tests each batch in a test chocolate before it can be released for the manufacturer to use.

An increasing number of chocolate manufacturers choose non-GMO ingredients for their chocolate recipes. Even when the manufacturer is located in a region or country that doesn’t require non-GMO solutions, some production quantities may be exported to countries demanding non-GMO products. Palsgaard® AMP 4455, which is based on raw materials of a non-GMO origin and can be classified as both non-GMO and non-allergenic, neatly and cost-effectively solves these concerns.

Lecithin is well known for imparting off-flavours. Palsgaard® AMP 4455,  is designed to be a taste-neutral product that gives the consumer the best possible chocolate experience, removing any disturbing flavours that make it difficult to consistently achieve the desired chocolate taste. 

Another thing that concerns chocolate manufacturers is the challenge of keeping production equipment clean and the chocolate free of microbiological organisms such as E-Coli and salmonella. Palsgaard® AMP 4455 has been specifically developed to provide a high degree of safety against such pathogens, and all batches of Palsgaard® AMP 4455 are produced in hygienic, sealed machinery at temperatures where it’s impossible for microorganisms to survive. In the event of contamination further along the supply chain, inoculation tests confirm that all microorganism activity would cease in less than a week inside AMP.  

According to Palsgaard switching to an AMP-based emulsifier is fast and easy. A good way to begin is to simply set the Palsgaard® AMP 4455 dosage to half of the current lecithin dosage, and see if this produces the same rheological properties of the chocolate. Only a few rheological tests and dosage adjustments should be needed to reach the target rheology. 

Palsgaard is making its chocolate pilot plant available to support the company’s customers with trials of the new product for their recipes. With process equipment similar to that used in many chocolate factories, the plant enables Palsgaard’s application team to demonstrate how to reformulate from lecithin to AMP, and to help fine-tune each recipe for success.