Vegan Chocolate: Technological Solutions for Milk Powder Replacement

Vegan chocolate – replacing whole milk powder with plant-based alternatives, addressing milk fat and non-fat solids. Milk powder provides not only flavor but also key functionalities such as texture, flow behavior, and crystallization. A substitute must replicate these without compromising quality. Milk fat drives cocoa butter crystallization, while proteins and carbohydrates govern rheology and particle structure.

Current approaches rarely integrate both aspects in a technological framework. We evaluated vegetable oils (hazelnut, almond, sunflower, coconut) as milk-fat replacers and analyzed their impact on cocoa butter crystallization using SFC, DSC, and NMR. In parallel, we formulated vegan milk-powder alternatives from pea protein, maltodextrin, and oil, processed as emulsions and dried via freeze and spray drying. Powders were characterized for morphology, free fat, wettability, and sorption, then incorporated into chocolate. Fatty-acid composition strongly influences crystallization, enabling structures comparable to milk fat. Spray drying yields spherical particles with encapsulated fat; freeze drying produces porous structures with free fat—both suitable for chocolate processing. Rheological properties (yield stress, viscosity) match typical milk chocolate ranges. Solid-fat content remains within quality standards when oil is encapsulated in the powder matrix. These insights enable the development of technologically robust, sensorially acceptable vegan milk chocolates.