6533b858fe1ef96bd12b6561

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Mineral essential elements for nutrition in different chocolate products

Piero RobertiCinzia Di CesareLuciano CinquantaGiancarlo SalvatoriAngela PianoRemo Manoni

subject

0301 basic medicinemineralFood HandlingIronDietarychemistry.chemical_elementZincmagnesiumFood handlingSelenium03 medical and health sciences0302 clinical medicineNutrientmedia_common.cataloged_instance030212 general & internal medicineFood scienceChocolate; cocoa; iron; magnesium; mineral; nutritional values; Cacao; Chocolate; Iron Dietary; Magnesium; Selenium; Trace Elements; Zinc; Food Handling; Nutritive Value; Food ScienceChocolateEuropean unionTrace Elementmedia_commonnutritional valueCacao030109 nutrition & dieteticsMineralSettore AGR/15 - Scienze E Tecnologie AlimentariTrace ElementsZincMilk ChocolatechemistrycocoaReference valuesnutritional valuesNutritive ValueIron DietarySeleniumFood Science

description

In this work, the essential mineral nutritional elements in cocoa beans, in chocolates at different cocoa percentage (60,70,80 and 90%) and in milk chocolate are evaluated. Dark chocolates are confirmed as an excellent source of magnesium (252.2 mg/100 g) and iron (10.9 mg/100 g): in chocolate containing 90% cocoa, their content corresponds to, respectively, 67.0% and 80.3 of Nutrient Reference Values (NRV) in the European Union. The chocolate containing 90% cocoa is also a good source of zinc (3.5 mg/100 g), which is important for the immune system, and selenium (0.1 mg/100 g). Three main components suitable to explain the mineral concentrations are analyzed by factor analysis. The component 1 can be interpreted as the contribution from the cocoa beans, owing to the mineral characteristics of the soil in which they have grown; the component 2 is mainly due to the manipulation and transformation of the cocoa in chocolate, while the component 3 represents the milk powder.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2016-01-01International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
https://doi.org/10.1080/09637486.2016.1199664