Statistical Study of Fruit-Infused Chocolate Science, Process and Product
Charles Chen
Applied Materials
Mason Chen
Stanford University
Kaitlyn Zhang
Stanford University
This paper will apply "STEAMS" methodology on Chocolate Science. The science will mainly address how the antioxidants in chocolate help reduce free radical formation and increase production of nitric oxide. Free radicals, atoms with an odd number of electrons, damage blood vessels when oxidized by LDL which consequently increases the risk of heart disease (Technology and Engineering). Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels which increases blood flow. Data was collected on 20+ chocolate ingredient nutrition factors from 60+ different types of chocolate but were missing the Cocoa%. AI Neural Network algorithm was utilized to impute the missing Cocoa%. The hyperbolic tangent activation function was used to create the hidden layer. In order to overcome the Neural over-fit issue, definitive screening design (DSD) DOE technique was used to optimize the AI Neural algorithm. The optimal Neural setting can improve validation fitness R-Square by more than 20%. Based on the optimized neural model, Chocolate Type and Vitamin C are the highest predictors of estimating Cocoa%. Because fruit is high in Vitamin C, there could be further health benefits from dark fruit chocolate.