European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety

Aims: The present study design and evaluate Chocolate, exploring optimal combinations of Whey powder, lactose hyrolyzed whey powder and WPC 80 to elevate sensory satisfaction.

Study Design: Development of Whey Powder Enriched Chocolate.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at the Department of Dairy Technology, Dairy Science College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, during the period from December 2024 to December 2025.

Methodology: The study was designed to develop whey enriched with whey. The experiment involved incorporating these functional ingredients at varying concentrations to determine their combined effect on the sensory attributes of chocolate. Initially, whey powder was added at levels of 5%, 10% and 15% to identify the most acceptable concentration based on sensory evaluation. Similarlly, The lactose hydrolyzed whey was added at 5%, 10% and 15%, and the WPC-80 was added 5%, 10% and  15% to develop the final product (chocolate enriched whey). And all the ingredients used in this experiment are food grade and generally Recognised as Safe. The sensory properties of each formulation were evaluated by trained panellists using a 9-point hedonic scale, and statistical analysis was conducted using ANOVA and Critical Difference (CD) tests to identify significant variations among treatments.

Results: The results demonstrated that whey powder, lactose hydrolysed whey powder and WPC-80 significantly influenced the sensory qualities of the chocolate. Specifically, the 10% whey powder, 5% lactose hydrolysed whey powder and 10% WPC-80 sample achieved the highest ratings in colour and appereance, body and texture, flavour and overall acceptability.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that best judged whey powder, lactose hydrolysed whey powder and WPC-80.  levels can significantly enhance the sensory appeal of chocolate making them more favorable to consumers.