The Higher the Cocoa Powder Content, The Faster Your Chocolate Drink Spoils
Using Ryoto Sugar Esters emulsifiers to function as an antibacterial agent in your chocolate milk formulation is as easy as learning the alphabet.
Not only do we have a huge collection of scientific literature to refer to, we also have a ready beverage solutions team from Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation to help you resolve your concerns and questions.
Spore-based bacteria are a major cause of spoilage in ready-to-drink RTD milk beverages, and cocoa powder added in chocolate milk gives a more favorable condition for bacterial growth.
Not only are spore-based bacteria harder to kill, they are also resistant to heat. Hence, standard sterilization conditions are not adequate in reducing these bacterial populations to zero.
The increasing demands for preservative-free ready-to-drink RTD formulas make it harder for beverage technologists to create a packaged chocolate milk with a long shelf-life.
Sugar esters are effective for Bacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus coagulans, Desulfotomaculm nigrificans, or typical anaerobic spore forming bacteria of various members of Clostridium.
In a laboratory test done on 3 different chocolate milk formulas, the only difference is the cocoa powder content. The formula with more cocoa powder requires a larger amount of antibacterial Ryoto Sugar Ester emulsifier to prevent spoilage.
Formula A has 0 percent of cocoa powder, B has 1percent and C has 2 percent.
All three different formulas were heated at 121 degrees over 50 or 70 minutes and stored at 55 degrees for a period of 45 days
Experiment Flow Chart
Beverage Prepared and Sterilized
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Take 30 ml in sterile cups
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Inoculation of Clostridium thermaceticum spore suspension
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Dividing to each 2 ml in glass tubes (5 tubes for each)
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Heat seal of glass tubes
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Heat treatment in oil bath at 121 C
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Cool down in iced water
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Storage at 55 C for 45 days
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Evaluation (Observation, pH measurement)
Without using and preservatives or Ryoto Sugar Esters emulsifiers, all 3 formulas show positive growth of Clostridium thermaceticum spores.
Even without any presence of cocoa powder in Formula A, at least 500ppm of Ryoto Sugar Ester emulsifiers have to be added to inhibit growth up till 45 days.
In Formula B and C, 750ppm and 1000pm of Ryoto Sugar Esters are needed respectively.