Performance of Roasted Cocoa Bean Winnower for Small Holder Chocolate Producers

Cocoa bean winnowing has a function to separate cocoa nibs from shell after roasting process of dry bean. Nibs are further processed into fine cocoa liquor by refining process. The aim of this experiment was to evaluate working performance of a home-scale winnower to separate shell from nibs with minimum shell parchment content in cocoa nibs. This experiment was conducted in Postharvest Laboratory at the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute using roasted cocoa bean grade A according to standard of SNI 2323:2008/ Amd1:2010 with shell content of 15% originated from Forastero cocoa. Working performance of the home-scale winnower was evaluated based on shell parchment content in the output, its capacity, energy consumption and power transfer efficiency value by several air suction rates as variable. Data were analyzed using regression and variance analysis to evaluate the influence of the rate and to determine the optimum machine operation. Results of regression and variance analysis from winnowing experiment with air suction rate of 0.54 m/s; 0.63 m/s; 0.72 m/s and 0.90 m/s indicated that shell parchment content in cocoa nibs and power transfer efficiency value were affected by the rate. The optimum machine performance was obtained on 0.72 m/s of air suction rate with total winnowing capacity was 2.615 kg/hour, energy consumption of 132 Watt, power transfer efficiency value of 61.01% and shell parchment content was 1.06%. Shell parchment content in cocoa nibs was appropriate regarding to the SNI standard with maximum content of 1.75%

Formulation of Decaffeinated Instant Coffee Effervescent Tablet

Decaffeinated coffee is an alternative for caffeine intollerant consumer as a safe and practical choice. However, since decaffeination process employ high temperature extraction, the coffee produced usually possesses inferior sensory qualities. This research was aimed to get an optimum formulation of effervescent coffee tablet that has good physical and sensory quality. In this research, effervescent coffee tablet was formulated with three different ratios of the decaffeinated instant coffee and effervescent reagent (citric acid and sodium bicarbonate), namely 1.5:1; 1:1; and 1:1.5 (w/w) weighed in 3 g per tablet serving. Sensory evaluation was carried out organoleptically in several criteria such as flavors, aromas, and colors on 40 mL, 80 mL, and 120 mL of the solution. Futher, physical quality evaluation was done by measuring its weight uniformity, hardness, friability, and run time which then calculated by statistic analytical method to decide the best formulation. Based on the result, the best formulation of effervescent coffee tablet was 1:1.5 (w/w) due to its shortest run time (4.2 minutes), good weight uniformity and hardness value, 1.16 ± 0.03 g/cm3 dan 6.7 ± 0.5 kg, respectively, while friability value was the smallest (2%) compared to other formulations. The brewing of this formulation in 40 mL water also had best sensory profiles in term of aroma, color and flavor

Reduction of Microbe Contamination Through Steaming Process to Cocoa Beans Using Steaming Chamber

Dry cocoa bean quality is also determined by its microbe contamination level. Steaming process for dried cocoa beans as a pretreatment process was selected because of less effect on organic compound inside the dried cocoa bean. This experiment aim was to study microbial contamination level of cocoa beans using steaming process, determining its microbial population and evaluate its chemical changes. Experiment was carried out in Postharvest Laboratory of Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute. Cocoa beans for the experiment were lots collected from four farms in Jayapura, Papua with different microbial contamination level for each lot. Results of this experiment showed that optimum steaming process was 15 minutes at 100 O C with 10 minutes preheating time. Microbial analysis result of the four lots after complete steaming process by total plate count method showed the same result (<3.0 x 103 cfu). Most of the decrease in microbial contaminant appeared in the plate was 73.5% of Staphylococcus aureusand 0.058% of Penicilliumsp. Bean acidity (pH) after steaming increased (4.76 to 4.80) and free fatty acid increased (1.81% to 1.96%) while carbohydrate content decreased (17.5% to 15.9%) and as well as protein content (12.6% into 11.7%)