Since the annual per capita chocolate consumption in the United States is a whopping 9.5 pounds, according to statistics database Statista, it comes as no surprise that there is an interest in making milk chocolate, the most popular variety, healthier for consumers. Enter Lisa Dean, a professor at NC State and research food technologist for the United States Department of Agriculture. Dean recently oversaw a project investigating the possibility of deriving antioxidants from peanut skins and adding them to milk chocolate to boost its nutritional content.

The researchers extracted the compounds of interest from peanut skins using ethanol, which is food grade, and then spray dried the resulting substance to achieve a powder. Then they encapsulated the material in maltodextrin, forming a more substantial powder that is on a similar scale to baking ingredients. The team added this powder to melted chocolate, which they subsequently remolded. The study was carried out by Brianna Hess, a doctoral student studying biological and agricultural engineering.

Dean and her team first became interested in the idea when the discovery was made that peanut skins contain antioxidant compounds like those found in tea and dark chocolate. Currently, tons of those peanut skins are discarded every year.

“They’re too astringent to put into animal feed in large amounts, [so] like a lot of other bioproducts, they are just a waste product,” said Claire Klevorn, a graduate student studying food science who assisted with the project and co-authored the research paper.

Although the process is promising, the potential applications are narrowed by one factor. Since the compounds are derived from red, paper-like skins that cover the actual peanut, they could potentially be harmful to consumers with nut allergies.

“The big issue with peanuts is always allergenicity — you can’t put peanuts into just any food,” Dean said. “So we were looking for things that people associate with peanuts, and that’s how we got the idea to do chocolate.”

According to Dean, five out of the 10 top chocolate bars in the United States already contain peanut products, so even if the compounds do turn out to be allergenic, they will still be usable in a large portion of chocolate products.

Dean is optimistic about future applications. The study was successful as a small-scale pilot test, only representing the beginning of the process toward commercial development. Dean indicates that the next step is more extensive testing to determine clinical effects, whether health-promoting or harmful. While the Agriculture Research Service chose not to pursue a patent, since the research already published renders the technique in the public domain, Dean hopes that a company will pick up where she and her colleagues left off and develop the technique for commercialization.

And of course, as with any food-related process, there is a financial side to be considered. Currently, there is a cost associated with peanut skins, because processors must pay a fee to landfills in order to dispose of them.

“In order to make these extracts, it’s going to take a certain amount of finesse — and money,” said Dean. “We have to have a market where the value makes it worth the while. That’s probably the main barrier we have to overcome.” 

One advantage to the fact that the researchers used extracts, rather than intact peanut skins, is that the volume of material which they added to the chocolate in their experiment was very small. Klevorn said this is a positive thing for businesses. For example, Hershey’s always want to maintain the integrity of their products by ensuring that they are classified as “real” chocolate, and not some conglomerate of filler materials.

Ultimately, the technique is a promising one in the early stages of development. Although consumers shouldn’t expect to see the enhanced chocolate at the grocery store next week, there is a very real possibility that this extraction process will be commercialized in the relatively near future. The sooner the better, as far as health conscious milk chocolate devotees are concerned.