COCOA PROCESSING

Cocoa bean Theobroma cacao, meaning „food of the God

Varieties of Cocoa

Criollo

It has white cotyledons. The chocolate made out of it is of light brown colour quite like milk chocolate. It
has pleasant flavour, nutty type with only a mild typical chocolate flavour. Criollo is rare in production.

Forastero

Most of the world‟s cocoa is derived from Forastero trees (i.e. 95% of world cocoa crop). It is made up
of small, flattish and purple beans.

Trinitario
It is a hybrid between Forastero and Criollo trees. It is a disease resistant hybrid, regarded as a flavour bean.
It has a strong chocolate flavour; in addition ancillary flavours such as fruity, raisin, caramel, molasses and
spicy notes.
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Breaking the pods
The pods are broken within 5 days of harvest. Separate the healthy pods from damaged ones to differentiate
between the grades. Open the pod with a stick that has no pointed edges so as to extract the beans without
damaging them.

Before processing, cocoa beans are passed through the processes of cleaning, breaking and winnowing
to obtain nibs of consistent quality. These processes also ensure that the nibs are cleaned (free from
dirt and infestation), well broken and properly de shelled.

The kernels (nibs) obtained after the process must be of uniform size to achieve constant quality. The
process involves, first, sieving the beans and removing all extraneous materials such as stones, strings,
coins, wood pieces, soil particles and nails.

The cleaned beans are then broken to loosen the s hells from the nibs using multiple steps to avoid an
excess of fine particles. The products obtained are then sieved into smaller number of fractions to
obtain optimal separation during subsequent winnowing. The fractions are then transported to the
Winnowing cabinet where the lighter broken shells are removed by a stream of air.

The Breaking and winnowing steps are vital in separating the essential components of the bean, the
nibs from the shells, and the shells are then discarded and sold for use as agricultural Mulch or as
fertilisers. Strong magnets are then used to remove magnetic foreign materials from the nibs.

Fermentation

Cocoa beans are subjected to microbial fermentation for 7-12 days in large bin; the colour, flavour
and texture of bean are modified. Fermentation begins with yeasts converting the sugars in the pulp
to ethanol. This produces the initial aerobic conditions, and then bacteria start to oxidize the ethanol
to acetic acid and further to CO2 and water; producing heat, raising the temperature during the first 24
h to 40oC in a good active fermentation.

Chocolate obtained from slaty, unfermented beans tastes extremely unpleasant, being very bitter and
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astringent without any apparent chocolate flavour.

On the second day, the pulp starts to break down and drain away. Bacteria further increases, lactic acid is
produced and an acetic acid bacterium, under slight more aerobic conditions, actively oxidizes alcohol to
acetic acid; temperature reaches to ~ 45oC.

Total 5-6 days fermentation is necessary; bacterial activity continues under increasingly good aeration;
high temperature is maintained by bacterial activity.

Chemical changes

The proteins and polyphenols are essential for development of chocolate flavour.

Anthocyanins and other polyphenolic compounds in the pigment cells can diffuse out into the adjacent
main storage cells. The enzymes breakdown the coloured anthocyanins resulting in some bleaching of
cotyledons. As more air reaches, oxidative or browning reactions start to predominate and the tissue
darkens.
End of fermentation

The optimal end of fermentation is checked from the end of 5th day.

 Bean colour changes to brown, becomes plump and filled with reddish brown.
 Shell becomes loose and gets detached from the cotyledons

There are four different methods of fermentation which are as follows

1. Heap method
2. Tray method
3. Basket method
4. Box method

Drying

1. Sun-drying

It takes about a week of sunny weather to dry down to 7.0% moisture, needed to prevent mould
growth during storage.

2. Forced-air driers

Artificial drying poses two problems

a. Beans are dried too quickly resulting in beans becoming very acidic
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b. Smoke may find its way onto the beans, producing unpleasant acrid, smoky or tarry taste

There must be a system for ventilation and controlling other parameters like temperature as the taste quality
of cocoa beans change above 55 degree celsius.

Cleaning and grading

From the silo storage/burlap bags, cocoa beans pass through cleaning machines: screens, magnets
and controlled air streams. The extraneous material removed includes sticks, stones, and string, metal
objects.

Storage
The great emphasis to achieve optimum quality from harvest to drying must continue during
transport and storage. The jute bags containing dried cocoa beans are placed on a pellet to avoid contact with
the ground and walls. The storage location must be clean, dry, well aerated and protected from the rodents
and humidity to ensure the quality of produce.

Secondary processing denotes the steps involved in conversion of raw beans into different
finished products, the main product being chocolate. The essence of cocoa and chocolate
manufacture lies in the development of flavor by roasting the beans, followed by the
extraction of cocoa butter from the nib to produce cocoa powder.

Roasting
1.Loosening of the shells.
2.Moisture loss from the beans to about 2% final content.
3.The nibs (cotyledons) become more friable and generally darken in colour.
4. Additional reduction in the number of micro-organisms present in the beans. This helps
attain food-grade products, such as cocoa butter, cocoa powder and cocoa liquor, which
have stringent microbiological specifications.
5. Losses of volatile acids and other substances that contribute to acidity and bitterness.
Most favoured temperature for proper roasting of cocoa beans for chocolate making lies between
120-125-degree Celsius.

Winnowing

The separation of shell of cocoa beans is necessary as the presence of significant amount of
shell in chocolate will affect both colour and flavour and in addition reduces the effectiveness
of refining. Once the beans are roasted well they should be winnowed or dehulled. Winnowing
separates the cocoa nib (the edible and sought after portion) from the shell. The cocoa nibs are
then processed into chocolate or other cocoa products.
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Alkalization (Dutch process)

Cocoa alkalisation is a value added process in cocoa processing to produce alkalized cocoa mass
or powder. It involves treatment of cocoa nibs with a food grade alkali solution (saturated
solution of sodium or potassium carbonate) to raise pH, thus producing dark colors and strong
flavours. Alkalisation temperature of 80-85-degree Celsius gives the best flavour.

 Reduces the acidity of natural cocoa (pH is raised from 5.2-5.6 to almost neutral
values 6.8-7.5)

 Reduces sourness
 Increases solubility and dispersibility of cocoa in water

Products of Cocoa

1) Cocoa mass or liquor- The dried beans are cleaned and roasted uniformly to get the
desired aroma. The roasted beans are broken and winnowed to get good nibs
(cotyledons). When these nibs are ground using a boll mill crusher or grinding
machine, cocoa liquor or cocoa mass is obtained. There are two types of cocoa mass-
natural mass and alkaline mass.
 In natural mass production water is added during roasting where as an alkaline
solution (potassium carbonate)is added for the alkaline mass

Cocoa butter- Cocoa butter and cocoa cakes are extracted from pure cocoa mass or paste with
the help of a hydraulic press. The cocoa butter obtained is neutralized, hard in consistency,
waxy, slightly shiny, pale yellow in color and oily to touch.

Depending on the pressing time and the settings of the press, the resulting cake may have a
fat content of between 10 and 24%. Two kinds of cocoa cake can be obtained by the
process:
1. High-fat cake containing between 22 and 24% residual fat in the pressed cake
2. Low-fat cake containing between 10 and 12% residual fat in the pressed cake.

The powder grinding lines usually comprise hammer-and- disc or pin mills, which
pulverise cocoa cake particles into the defined level of fineness of cocoa powder. The
powder is then cooled after pulverisation so that the fat of the cocoa powder crystallises
into its stable form. This prevents any discolouration (fat bloom) and the formation of
lumps in the bags after packing. The free flowing powder is then passed through sieves and
over magnets prior to packing in bulk containers or four-ply multiwall paper bags lined
with polyethylene.
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Properties of cocoa butter
Cocoa butter is one of the most expensive natural fats, due to its unique melting behaviour. Some
important properties of cocoa butter is provided in Table 42.3.
The quality of cocoa butter is based on:
 Hardness of fat at room temperature
 Melting and solidification behaviour

Chocolate manufacturing processes

a) Mixing-

Mixing of ingredients during chocolate manufacture is a fundamental operation

employed using time-temperature combinations in a continuous or batch mixers to
obtain constant formulation consistency. In batch mixing, chocolate containing cocoa
liquor, sugar cocoa butter, milk fat and milk powder is thoroughly mixed normally
for 12-15 minutes at 40-50 degree Celsius.
b) Refining-

Refining of chocolate is important to the production smooth texture that is desirable

in modern chocolate confectionary. Mixtures of sugar and cocoa liquor at an overall
fat content of 8-24% are refined using a combination of two-and-five roll refiners.
C) Conching

This process is regarded as the endpoint or final operation in the manufacture of bulk
chocolate, whether milk or dark. It is an important process that contributes to the
development of viscosity, texture and flavour. Conching is usually carried out by
agitating chocolate at more than 50 degree Celsius for few hours.

A conche machine is a surface scraping mixer and agitator that evenly distributes
cocoa butter within the chocolate. It promotes flavour development through heat,
release of volatiles, acids and oxidation.
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Tempering

Cocoa butter is the reason why you have to 'temper' real chocolate. Cocoa butter is fat that is composed
of three to four glycerides of fatty acids. Tempered chocolate contains from 1% to 3% of the cocoa
butter in the form of small seed crystals in the β V polymorph, although the actual seed content. Once
heated, the crystals of the polymorphic cocoa butter are able to break apart from the rigid structure
and allow the chocolate to obtain a more fluid consistency as the temperature increases (Melting
process). When the heat is removed, the cocoa butter crystals become rigid again and come closer
together, allowing the chocolate to solidify.

Crystal Melting temp. Notes

I 17 °C (63 °F) Soft, crumbly, melts too easily
II 21 °C (70 °F) Soft, crumbly, melts too easily
III 26 °C (79 °F) Firm, poor snap, melts too easily
IV 28 °C (82 °F) Firm, good snap, melts too easily
V 34 °C (93 °F) Glossy, firm, best snap, melts near body temperature (37 °C)
VI 36 °C (97 °F) Hard, takes weeks to form

A tempering method called the mush method is occasionally used in small chocolate processing facilities
and culinary kitchens. It involves crystallizing a portion of melted chocolate by working it on a marble
slab or a stainless steel cold table. In most manufacturing plants, tempering is done by mechanically
inducing cocoa butter crystals. Chocolate is tempered continuously by passing it through scraped surface
heat exchangers that expose the melted chocolate to a controlled thermal profile and intense agitation to
induce crystallization. Time, temperature and agitation all contribute to the tempering process. These heat
exchangers generally have three temperature zones. First, the chocolate must be fully melted to erase any
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cocoa butter crystal memory before being cooled to a temperature where nucleation of unstable
polymorphs (primarily β′) is induced. This temperature depends slightly on the fat phase in the chocolate.
Dark chocolates may be cooled to 27–28 °C (81– 83 °F) whereas milk chocolate is cooled to a slightly
lower temperature, 26–27 °C (79–81 °F), to offset the inhibition of crystallization exerted by milk fat on
cocoa butter. The final stage of the tempering heat exchanger raises the temperature of the chocolate to a
point above the melting point of the unstable polymorphs but below the melting point of the stable β V
polymorph. This causes melting of the unstable forms and trans- formation to the stable form.
Temperatures on the order of 30–32 °C (86–90 °F) are common, but again, the optimal temperature
depends somewhat on the nature of the fat phase in the chocolate.
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