The emerging need to reduce the calorific value of foods, while simultaneously improving the consumer
perception drives the quest for developing new food structures that satisfy both criteria. Aiming to shed
light on the influence that micro-aeration has on the breakdown of chocolate during the early stages of the
oral processing, this paper summarises the development of multi scale, in silico Finite Element (FE) models
for the first bite. A micro-mechanical analysis was first employed to predict the impact on the mechanical
properties of chocolate at two microaeration levels, i.e. 𝑓 = 10vol% and 𝑓 = 15vol%. The estimated elastic,
plastic and fracture properties from the micromechanical model were subsequently fed into a macroscopic
simulation of the first bite. Both micromechanical and the macromechanical models for the 10vol% and 15vol%
porosity chocolate are compared to experimental data for validation purposes. The micromechanical models
are compared to data from literature on mechanical testing of the same two chocolate materials whereas the
first bite macromechanical model was compared to in vitro experimental data obtained in this study using a
3D printed molar teeth test rig mounted to a mechanical tester. Finally, the particle size distribution of the
fragmented chocolate during the first bite was estimated from the in silico model and compared to in vivo
literature data on the same chocolate materials and in vitro experimental data from this work. All comparisons
between the in silico models and the in vitro/in vivo data led to good agreement. Our modelling methodology
provides a cost-efficient tool for the investigation of new food structures that reduce the calorific value while
enhancing the taste perception.