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a b s t r a c tDue to recent developments in traceability systems, it is now possible to exchange significant amounts of data through food supply chains. Farming practices applied by cocoa farmers at the beginning of the chocolate supply chain strongly influence several quality parameters of the finished chocolate. However, information regarding these practices does not normally reach the chocolate manufacturer. As a consequence, many specifications of the raw material cannot be taken into consideration in the operational decision making processes related to chocolate production. In recent years many studies have been investigating the influence of certain farming practices on cocoa beans and the subsequent chocolate quality parameters. However, no comprehensive analysis of the process variables in the chain and their effects on the quality can be found. In this paper we review and classify the available literature on the topic in terms of process variables throughout the chain, and their effects on quality and flavour aspects of cocoa beans and the eventual chocolate product. After analyzing the literature, we are able to identify potential benefits of using data regarding the farming practices into the chocolate production process. These potential benefits especially concern product quality and production yield, giving directions for the future of chocolate production.

The effect of osmotic shock, enzymatic incubation, pulsed electric field, and high shear homogenization on the release of water-soluble proteins and carbohydrates from the green alga Ulva lactuca was investigated in this screening study. For osmotic shock, both temperature and incubation time had a significant influence on the release with an optimum at 30 °C for 24 h of incubation. For enzymatic incubation, pectinase demonstrated being the most promising enzyme for both protein and carbohydrate release. Pulsed electric field treatment was most optimal at an electric field strength of 7.5 kV cm−1 with 0.05 ms pulses and a specific energy input relative to the released protein as low as 6.6 kWh kgprot −1. Regarding literature, this study reported the highest protein (~ 39%) and carbohydrate (~ 51%) yields of the four technologies using high shear homogenization. Additionally, an energy reduction up to 86% was achieved by applying a novel two-phase (macrostructure size reduction and cell disintegration) technique.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s10811-017-1319-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.