Physico-Chemical, Textural, Antioxidant and Sensory Characterization of White Chocolate Enriched with Barley Powder

The enrichment of chocolate with healthy beneficial ingredients represents an effective strategy to create functional food with high nutritional and bioactive potential. Comparisons were made between eight treatments derived by the factorial combination of 2 types of butter (milk and cocoa) and 4 concentrations of green barley powder addition (1%, 3%; 5%; and 7%), plus 2 untreated controls (milk butter and cocoa butter with no green barley powder addition), in terms of chemical, colorimetric, physical, antioxidant, mineral and sensory characteristics of white chocolate. Increasing addition of green barley to both milk and cocoa butter led to the decrease in dry matter, soluble solids, pH and fat in the produced chocolate, with the untreated controls always showing the highest values. Opposite trends were recorded for proteins, fiber, ash and mineral substances. The ‘L’, ‘a’ and ‘b’ color components gradually decreased from the untreated control to the highest concentration of barley powder addition both to milk and cocoa butter. The increasing integration of barley powder either into milk or cocoa butter resulted in the gradual decrease in F max compression and F max cutting of the chocolate manufactured, compared to the untreated control. The addition of barley powder to milk and cocoa butter elicited a gradual increase in all the antioxidants analyzed, i.e., vitamin C, carotenes, lycopene and xanthophylls, and of chlorophyll a and b, compared to the untreated control. Vegetal flavor attributes were enhanced by the increasing addition of green barley powder. The latter incorporation into milk and cocoa butter sheds light on the interesting topic of conceiving and applying the manufacture of innovative functional chocolate with high content of fiber, nutrients and antioxidants.