Chocolate made with 30% less sugar using AI

Sugar reduction is a trend that’s here to stay as many consumers become increasingly aware of their health and wellbeing. In response, food manufacturers continue to future-proof their products by developing recipes with reduced sugar content.

Finnish dairy ingredients company Valio recently used the latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology combined with its Bettersweet product to develop a chocolate bar which is claimed to reduce sugar by up to 30% without affecting the taste.

It uses Valio’s Bettersweet milk powder, which is designed to allow manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar used in chocolate by up to 30% and also gives them the possibilities of using the ‘Without added sugar’ claim.

The AI technology was used to analyse the tastes of chocolate lovers from around the world to develop the five-layered chocolate bar, called The Bar. Each layer is designed to have a different taste and texture that fits a different motive derived by the AI: hunger, craving, relaxation, impulse and delight. The design of the bar allows for the layers to be easily separated, and the size of each layer corresponds to the importance of each use case.

Image caption: iStock.com/Aleksandr Durnov