Preface Free

In 1988, I wrote a paper for School Science Review, in which I described some of the science involved in chocolate making and followed this by two experiments that could be tried in the classroom. As a result of this, I received letters from both pupils and teachers requesting more information or new experiments to try. Subsequently, I was contacted by Chris Butlin, who was then developing a food option for the Salters’ Physics Advanced Level course. This resulted in some of the science of chocolate being included in this option. The numerous talks given by my colleagues and myself to junior schools, societies and universities also convinced me that there was a genuine interest in this topic and that people were not just coming for the free samples. When, therefore, the Royal Society of Chemistry asked me if I would write a full book on this topic, aimed at schools and universities, I agreed to do so, without realising the amount of work involved. It was very gratifying, however, to learn in 2006 that the sales were such that a second edition of the book was required and again in 2016 when this third edition was planned.

Following the publication of the first book, people had commented that they wished to know more about the health and nutrition aspects of chocolate and, as a lot of research has recently been carried out in the area, this seemed the ideal subject for a new chapter. In addition, in 2005 New Scientist published a book entitled Does Anything Eat Wasps? in which the question was asked about how bubbles are put into Aeros^©. Possible solutions were given as part of a second new chapter.

This book was intended to be especially useful for someone studying food science at university or who is about to join the confectionery industry. Although a scientific background is required to understand the more difficult sections, such as fat chemistry or the Maillard reaction, most of the rest of the book should be readable by 16–18 year olds. Here I have attempt to show how concepts such as latent heat, relative humidity etc. play an important part in the making of something as apparently simple as chocolate. I hope that this in fact might prove to be a “painless” way of learning about them. Several sections are relatively simple and can be adapted by teachers of GCSE science or even younger pupils. This is especially true of the projects described in Chapter 13. These are meant to be just basic ideas that can be adapted according to age. They all use apparatus or ingredients that should be easy to make or obtain. The appropriate safety precautions must, of course, be taken especially for the ones involving glass, heat or chemicals.

Although it has not been foreseen, the book has been used in the chocolate industry and also in many countries, even being translated into Japanese. In this third edition I have tried to take this into account by including more about international products and how they are manufactured. Three new experiments have been included, but one removed because it did not work very well.

Finally I would like to thank my wife Dorothy and our son Richard for their help with the diagrams and advice with the text, together with Peter Ashby and Patrick Couzens, for correcting the script, taking photographs or testing the projects to ensure that they worked.

Stephen Beckett

York, UK