HELSINKI, Nov 30 — Is there a chocolate that can satisfy everyone? Perhaps that’s still a way’s off but in any case, this particular chocolate was designed to appeal to a maximum number of consumers. A Finnish dairy company used artificial intelligence based on the opinions of more than one and a half million chocolate eaters to design the chocolate that appealed to the tastebuds of the most people. So what is it like?

When it comes to chocolate, we all have our preferences: the French prefer dark chocolate, in concentrations of up to 30 per cent while the European average is 5 per cent. Some prefer to bite into a bar while others instead salivate for chocolate spreads, or even candy bars with various fillings. Therefore, it can be difficult for brands or chocolate makers to come up with a creation that appeals to the greatest number of people.

In Finland, a company specialising in dairy products (Valio) and byproducts has found a way to design a chocolate that has as universal an appeal as possible: through the use of artificial intelligence. More than one and a half million comments and opinions posted on social networks about milk chocolate were integrated into a software programme to develop a recipe based on the most commonly shared taste preferences. The result is a bar composed of five layers, each with a different flavor and texture, based on AI’s recommendations.

Moreover, this milk chocolate bar contains 30 per cent less sugar than regular chocolate and is lactose-free. And these characteristics are not afterthoughts for the Finnish company, which has developed a technology to remove lactose from its unique milk powder solution, which it used in this creation. — ETX Studio