No abstract

BACKGROUND: During traditional cocoa processing, the end of fermentation is empirically determined by the workers; consequently, a high variability on the quality of fermented cocoa beans is observed. Some physicochemical properties (such as fermentation index) have been used to measure the degree of fermentation and changes in quality, but only after the fermentation process has concluded, using dried cocoa beans. This would suggest that it is necessary to establish a relationship between the chemical changes inside the cocoa bean and the fermentation conditions during the fermentation in order to standardize the process.

No abstract

During cocoa beans roasting, there are physicochemical changes that develop the chocolate quality attributes. Roasting systems have a particular influence on the development of these characteristics, and the effects of operation variables for each system must be evaluated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of roasting time and temperature in a rotatory system on cocoa beans physicochemical parameters of quality as moisture, water activity, pH, total acidity, color ( * , * , * ), total phenolic content (TPC), and DPPH radical capacity. Cocoa beans were roasted as a function with a central rotatable design with 2 2 + 5 central points and 4 axial points (−1.414, −1, 0, +1, and +1,414) and a response surface methodology was applied. Temperature and time levels were 110-170 ∘ C and 5-65 minutes, respectively. The effect of the variables was nonlinear and modeled with a second-order response polynomial. Roasting time and temperature presented a significative effect ( < 0.05) on the response variables except for both TPC and DPPH radical capacity in aqueous extract.

No abstract