It’s not just about the size of the dose: printing sweetener on chocolate. | Image: Johannes Burkard

It’s actually possible to enjoy low-calorie chocolate – if it’s made using very little sweetener. Johannes Burkard of ETH Zurich is now printing chocolate with little dots containing small amounts of the natural sweetener thaumatin. Adding the thaumatin this way makes it taste up to three times sweeter than when it’s simply added to the chocolate.

This method is interesting not just for the food industry, but also for taste research, says Burkard. Depending on the pattern printed, the dots can trigger different sensations of sweetness when they melt on the tongue.

J. Burkard et al.: Inkjet-based surface structuring: amplifying sweetness perception through additive manufacturing in foods. NPJ Science of Food (2023)