Microorganisms during cocoa fermentation: systematic review

Abstract

Introduction. Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) originates from Ecuador. It is one of the oldest foods in the world. The fact that cocoa is the main component in chocolate industry makes it one of the most quoted raw materials today. The chemical, physical, microbiological, and sensory properties of cocoa determine its quality and, as a result, economic and nutritional value. The research objective was to conduct a detailed analysis of cocoa fermentation process and to study the transformations this raw material is subjected to during processing.
 Study objects and methods. The present article introduces a substantial bibliographic review based on three databases: Science Direct, Scopus, and Medline. The scientific publications were selected according to several factors. First, they had to be relevant in terms of cocoa fermentation. Second, they were written in English or Spanish. Third, the papers were indexed in high-impact journals. The initial selection included 350 articles, while the final list of relevant publications featured only 50 works that met all the requirements specified above.
 Results and discussion. The main characteristics of yeasts, lactic bacteria, and acetic bacteria were analyzed together with their main parameters to describe their activities during different stages of alcoholic, lactic, and acetic fermentation. A thorough analysis of the main enzyme-related processes that occur during fermentation makes it possible to optimize the use of substrates, temperature, time, pH, acidity, and nutrients. As a result, the finished product contains an optimal concentration of volatile compounds that are formed in the beans during fermentation. The study featured the main strains of fermentation-related microorganisms, their activities, main reactions, and products.
 Conclusion. This study makes it possible to improve the process of fermentation to obtain beans with a better chemical composition.

Dynamics of potential antihypertensive and antidiabetogenic activities during artisanal fermentation of three varieties of Mexican cocoa beans (Theobroma cacao L.)

“…Additionally, studies have suggested that lactic acid bacteria in cocoa bean fermentation do not have a major role in proteolysis (Ordoñez‐Araque et al ., 2020). However, other studies have proposed that proteases from microbial origin may also participate in the proteolysis of cocoa beans during fermentation (Marseglia et al ., 2014); since these microorganisms may possess important metabolism characteristics, including proteolysis (Wang et al ., 2021).…”

Pod storage time and spontaneous fermentation treatments and their impact on the generation of cocoa flavour precursor compounds

“…Pichia kudriavzevii was frequently associated with the cocoa fermentation treatment whatever the cocoa-producing countries such as Colombia (Delgado-Ospina et al, 2020), Cuba (Maura et al, 2016), Nicaragua (Papalexandratou et al, 2019) and Côte d'Ivoire (Hamdouche et al, 2015;Samagaci et al, 2016). However, other authors though that the most common yeasts strains involved in the cocoa fermentation include Saccharomyces spp, Candidda spp and Pichia spp (Ordoñez-Araque et al, 2020). The presence and the growth of yeast species during the cocoa fermentation could be explained by many factors, such as the initial yeasts community, the temperature of fermentation, and the interactions between the different microorganisms (Ho et al, 2014).…”

Screening Wild Yeast Isolated from Cocoa Bean Fermentation Using Volatile Compounds Profile

“…Production of fine or flavor cocoa is influenced by many factors related to the harvest and post-harvest processes, such as genotype, agroclimatic and edaphoclimatic conditions, fermentation, drying, and roasting [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], resulting in a product with variable quality and flavor heterogeneous characteristics. To improve cocoa beans’ sensorial quality from harvest to harvest, one of the main strategies employed is to standardize the cocoa bean fermentation processes using starter cultures.…”

“…Spontaneous cocoa bean fermentations are mediated by succession with microorganisms that include yeasts, lactic acid, and acetic acid bacterium, filamentous fungi, and spoilage bacteria. Among these microorganisms, yeasts are essentials because they are involved in the conversion of sugars into ethanol as well as aromatic secondary metabolites that may contribute to the flavor of cocoa [ 8 , 12 ].…”