The big difference between chocolate milk and other types of dairy products is the insolubility of the cocoa particles, according to Thomas Hvid Kruuse, Palsgaard’s Senior Application Specialist for Dairy and Ice Cream.
He says: “Cocoa particles are very visible in the milk because cocoa is insoluble. It means that very quickly you will see cocoa particles sink to the bottom as sediment if your system doesn't work.
“It’s always been a challenge for chocolate milk compared with other kinds of flavoured milk, and for this reason, this flavour of milk is widely used for testing the properties of new stabilisers, because it’s easy to see when the stabiliser is working.”
From a consumer’s point of view, chocolate milk with a layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle is not visually appealing. It also affects the taste, because the beverage can be very thin with very little chocolate flavour, most of it having sunk to the bottom.
Thomas notes that some producers have tried marketing tactics to help alleviate this problem.