Dados do Trabalho

Título

EFFECT OF COCOA PULP REDUCTION AND MALT RESIDUE SUBSTITUTION DURING COCOA FERMENTATION ON MINERAL PROFILE

Introdução

Cocoa fermentation usually takes place with the pulp surrounding the seeds, but new ways of modifying its properties have been suggested. Some alternatives can be the partial removal of the cocoa pulp and the substitution of by-products generated by other food matrices in the same process. However, modifying the material composition for cocoa fermentation can result in changes in the essential mineral profile, since they are influenced by cocoa composition, soil, environmental growing conditions, as well as the inclusion of new substrates.

Material e Métodos

Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of fermentation on the essential mineral composition (Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn and K) of cocoa beans traditionally fermented with 100% pulp and their nibs, shells, liquor and chocolate, and to compare it with cocoa beans fermented with only 60% pulp and 40% craft beer malt residue, since this is a highly available residue today.

Resultados e Discussão

Between cocoa bean and chocolate, the values were (mg/Kg): 1041-338 for Ca, 3582-1587 for Mg, 33-15 for Fe, 48-24 for Zn, 21-10 for Cu, 64-12 for Mn, and 11225-4623 for K. The results showed that Mg, Fe, and Zn did not show significant differences between the treatments of fermented cocoa beans and the comparing chocolates (p>0.05). In the respective nibs and chocolates, Ca, Mg and K did not show significant differences between samples (p>0.05). Principal component analysis showed a close dispersion for cocoa beans, nibs, liquor and chocolate regardless of treatment, except for cocoa shells. Observing the original results, cocoa shells showed the highest mineral content with a predominance of Mg and K.

Conclusão

Considering the reduction of cocoa pulp and the substitution of malt residues during fermentation compared to cocoa beans traditionally fermented with 100% pulp, the results suggest that this fermentation technique does not generally affect the composition of the respective nibs, liquor and chocolate with respect to their inorganic fractions.