Lecithin in Chocolate
August 22, 2010
Take a look at an ingredient label on a bar of chocolate. 9 times out of 10 you will see soy lecithin listed there.
Is using lecithin as an ingredient in chocolate important, and what is the benefit of using it?
Lecithin is a phospholipid typically derived from soybeans or eggs. In its liquid form, it is a yellow-brownish fatty substance with a fairly thick viscosity.
Lecithin is very important to chocolate because it reduces viscosity, replaces expensive ingredients such as cocoa butter, improves the flow properties of chocolate, and can improve the shelf life for certain products.
Viscosity reduction, or making a coating thinner, can certainly be done by adding cocoa butter or other fats and oils, but it takes greater amounts to accomplish this and is therefore more costly.
What Percentage of Lecithin is Used in Chocolate?
If 3.0% or 4.0% additional cocoa butter (could be even greater depending on the viscosity of the finished product) is needed to thin down a coating, only 0.5% of lecithin would be needed to get the same result. A little lecithin goes a long way.
However, there is a limit for lecithin. After 0.5%, the reducing effects on viscosity stop and can even start to go the other way and increase the viscosity.
Chocolate manufacturers know just how much to use in each formulation to maximize the advantage in viscosity.
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When you say that adding too much can make it thicker instead of thiner, would it affect the tempering to add enough that it begins to thicken? I’m making a vegan white chocolate and struggling to achieve a viscosity equal to the dark I make from paste. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Too much lecithin will interfere with tempering to the point that it won’t temper at all. In the past, I’ve seen the chocolate turn to the consistency of pudding or frosting and it never hardens. It would make a great filling but not a coating.
We stopped buying chocolate with lecithin. Looking for companies that produce chocolate without lecithin, can anyone share?
Check this site: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/chocolate-bars-with-no-soy-lecithin-are.html Also Lindt bars 90% found in lots of groceries. Another chocolate fan.
write to prashanthmm@chromachemie.co.in, they make no preservative,no vegetable oil, no sugar chocolate. Thier composition is simple Cocoa mass, cocoa butter and stevia sweeteener. However they are based in India
http://Www.healthyroyalchocolate.com does not use lecithin in their dark chocolate. They use sunflower lecithin in white and milk chocolate.
This is good to know! I am finding more and more chocolates made without lecithin.
I was wondering how much lecithin there is in chocolate powder like Nesquik? Would the 0.5% also apply to such product? Thank you.
Lecithin is used in small amounts in European chocloate, however it is used as an emulsifier to get all the parts of the chocolate to combine nicely.
Doctor Sarah Myhill an internationally renown ME specialist and nutritional guru recommends using Sunflower lecithin but advises against soy lecithin.
Really? If you would care to look at the labelling on Lindt chocolate, there is clearly stated, that it has soy lecithin in it. Waxy taste however does not come from that, rather it comes from replacing cocoa butter with cheaper fats and oils, also, might be the wrong tempering regimes and glucose syrup to blame.
Pfft Cheaper fats and oils can only be used up to 5% in the EU and not at all in the US. I was unable to tell the difference of the chocolate with 5% non cocoa butter added. You can check FDA Standards of Identity for Chocolate(US) or the Codex Alimentaria(EU) for the supporting regulations.
I don’t think any of the European chocolates have lecithin in them. It makes me sick. I can eat Lindt all day long with no ill effects, but Hersheys makes me sick and tastes like wax.
Yes, I find that Hershey Chocolate does not sit well with me either but I didn’t know why. it is starting to make sense now.
Perhaps the use of salt in hersheys chocolate does you wrong.
If money were no object, cocoa butter could be used to create the final viscousity, but cocoa butter is expensive, so a pound or so of lecethin makes sense. Soy, sunflower or whatever… soy is cheap and effective
Hershy’s uses slightly soured milk in their products. Perhaps that is the reason for not sitting well.
Some European chocolates have it. Check out Life’s Good or Theo’s. They are both lecithin free.
All chocolates do have lecithin in the EU, the biggest difference between ours and the US is that we use a different kind of cocoa and we do not add butyric acid either.
Per Epstein and Olsan, March 3, 1912, lecithin increases fermentation. Per “mnwelldir.org”, cancer metabolizes through a process of fermentation; and fermentation requires sugar. Sugar and soy lecithin are ingredients in most American-made chocolates. Many people break out after eating chocolate because their bodies do not easily digest/assimilate lecithin. For these people, lecithin and sugar, combined, can also be a deadly because it stands to reason that if sugar gets trapped in the body, by lecithin, then the growth of cancerous tumors accelerates. Therefore, chocolate manufacturers should exclude lecithin from their products.
The comments above about cancer have no scientific merit (e.g., “cancer metabolizes through a process of fermentation; and fermentation requires sugar.” Sugar is the primary energy source for all cells in the body (not just cancer). In fact, the brain can’t function without sugar. Low sugar levels cause hypoglycemia, which can be life-threatening. Human cells can metabolize sugar either aerobically (respiration) or anaerobically (fermentation). For example, during vigorous exercise, muscle cells use respiration until some muscle cells don’t get enough oxygen and must turn to fermentation. The by-product of the resulting sugar fermentation is lactic acid, which causes muscle aches. In summary, the implied connection between sugar, fermentation, and cancer above is bogus and misleading. The other statement is just as bogus: “lecithin and sugar, combined, can also be a deadly because it stands to reason that if sugar gets trapped in the body, by lecithin, then the growth of cancerous tumors accelerates. Therefore, chocolate manufacturers should exclude lecithin from their products.” Perhaps these statements are offered by an executive in a company that doesn’t use lecithin to produce chocolate in a shameful attempt to scare some people into buying more of that company’s product.
It is not sugar that the body needs it is carbs. you can find carbs in veg and fruit, anything sweet, gluten or starch. apart of animal products. the body also needs fat, actually, the body needs more fat than carbs. the cells feed on fat. check out ketogenic diet – it is high-fat low carb lifestyle. It is very true that the root of almost all illnesses is sugar – at the moment I am researching on making chocolate with stevia which is a natural sweetener, but I need a binder. what kind of binder will be best to use then?
Not the sugar that is dangerous; it is the high calories, be it from eating too many chocolates or from the starches and fats in your (safe) ketogenic- diet.