**3.2 Chocolate bloom**

The chocolate bloom was shown for both of its components—fat and sugar—at a temperature of 26°C, which is a good storage temperature. The blooming was also avoided by keeping the storage area dry.


**Table 1.** *Nutritional composition of the product.*

**Figure 11.** *X-ray diffraction for dark chocolate coated Chinese chestnut.*

#### **3.3 Microbiological quality**

The microbiological analysis of the dark chocolate coated Chinese chestnut and fruit & nut dark chocolate both were analysed under controlled circumstances at 7°C and 25 ± 2°C respectively. The table in **Figure 12** provided the results. Yeasts and moulds were not present, and the TPC was lower than that of the fruit and nut dark chocolate used as the reference sample for the testing (**Figure 12**). Additionally, the sample did not include any colonies of the bacteria S. aureus, Salmonella, or *E. coli*. The lack of yeast, moulds, and TPC confirmed that the raw material was treated carefully at every stage, from collection till processing and analysis of the developed product.

#### **3.4 Organoleptic properties**

Expert panel members conducted a sensory assessment of processed and packaged Chinese chestnut shells using a hedonic scale and marking on the following four criteria:
