Impact of a microbial cocktail used as starter culture on cocoa fermentation and chocolate flavor

Abstract

Chocolate production suffered a vast impact with the emergence of the “witches’ broom” disease in cocoa plants. To recover cocoa production, many disease-resistant hybrid plants have been developed. However, some different cocoa hybrids produce cocoa beans that generate chocolate with variable quality. Fermentation of cocoa beans is a microbiological process that can be applied for the production of chocolate flavor precursors, leading to overcoming the problem of variable chocolate quality. The aim of this work was to use a cocktail of microorganisms as a starter culture on the fermentation of the ripe cocoa pods from PH15 cocoa hybrid, and evaluate its influence on the microbial communities present on the fermentative process on the compounds involved during the fermentation, and to perform the chocolate sensorial characterization. According to the results obtained, different volatile compounds were identified in fermented beans and in the chocolate produced. Bitterness was the dominant taste found in non-inoculated chocolate, while chocolate made with inoculated beans showed bitter, sweet, and cocoa tastes. 2,3-Butanediol and 2,3-dimethylpyrazine were considered as volatile compounds making the difference on the flavour of both chocolates. Saccharomyces cerevisiae UFLA CCMA 0200, Lactobacillus plantarum CCMA 0238, and Acetobacter pasteurianus CCMA 0241 are proposed as starter cultures for cocoa fermentation.Cledir Santos thanks the Universidad de La Frontera (Temuco, Chile) for the partial funding from Project DIUFRO DI16-0135. The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Brazilian Agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq), Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), and Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES), and the samples obtained from the Fazendas Reunidas Vale do Juliana (Igrapiuna, Bahia, Brazil).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio