Physicochemical, sensory, and techno-economic evaluation of dark chocolate with the incorporation of Pistacia derived natural gums

This study aimed to investigate the potential utilization of natural gums (NG) obtained from Pistacia species in dark chocolate (DC) production, also its optimum usage level, its sensory acceptability, and the commercialization potential of NG incorporated DC were examined. The results showed that the incorporation of NG did not lead to significant changes in the quality attributes of DC, such as color, temper index, and melting point. The hardness of the DC increased with the incorporation of Pistacia lentiscus gum (PLG) and Pistacia terebinthus gum (PTG), whereas that of Pistacia vera gum (PVG) decreased. The Casson viscosity and yield stress decreased with the incorporation of PLG, whereas the incorporation of PTG and PVG resulted in an increase in these parameters. The optimization process identified the formulations (w/w) of NG incorporated DC as follows: for PLG, 40% cocoa mass, 35.65% sugar, and 4.35% PLG; for PTG, 40% cocoa mass, 35% sugar, and 5% PTG; and for PVG, 40% cocoa mass, 36.35% sugar, and 3.65% PVG. Remaining 20% (w/w) contained %19 cocoa butter and %1 lecithin. Sensory evaluation showed that the NG incorporated DC was liked by the panelists at a level comparable to that of the control DC without NG. Analyses conducted both in a virtual reality (VR) environment representing two distinct emotional states and in a traditional sensory analysis showed that the highest scores were obtained in the positive VR environment. PLG incorporated DC exhibited the highest commercialization potential.