Dark chocolates are a source of antioxidants but many dislike its bitter flavor. On the other hand, milk chocolate is more appealing to a lot more consumers, but doesn't have the same antioxidant properties as dark chocolate.

A way to use peanut skin extracts to make milk chocolate with even more nutritional benefits of dark chocolate without affecting the taste has been developed by researchers from the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University.

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Researchers extracted phenolic compounds from peanut skins, a waste product of peanut production, and encapsulated them into maltodextrin powder used to make fortified milk chocolate. This powder is an edible carbohydrate with a slightly sweet flavor that comes from starchy foods such as potatoes, rice or wheat.

Consumer testing of 80 subjects who compared samples of milk chocolates with peanut extracts and without showed the fortified chocolates were liked as well as the untreated milk chocolate.

These tests also showed the threshold for detecting the presence of the peanut skin extract was higher than that needed to fortify the milk chocolate to antioxidant levels comparable to dark chocolate.

Because peanut skins are a waste product of the peanut blanching process, including these extracts allow for a value-added use of the discarded skins.

"If applied to commercial products, peanut skin extracts would allow consumers to enjoy mild tasting products and have exposure to compounds that have proven health benefits," said lead author Lisa L. Dean.

Researchers noted that peanut allergenicity wasn't investigated, but that work is now ongoing.

TagsDark chocolates, antioxidants, milk chocolate, North Carolina State University, peanut skins, fortified chocolates, phenolic compounds