Effect of spontaneous micro-fermentation on the physicochemical characteristics of Theobroma cacao L. beans

Abstract

Cocoa beans must undergo postharvest processing that encompasses the fermentation, drying, and roasting stage for the development of flavor precursors providing desirable aroma and flavor profiles. The objective of this work was to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics of cocoa beans during the spontaneous fermentation process in three different sizes of Tepemixtle wooden boxes. The cocoa pods of the Trinitario variety were collected in the municipality of Tuzantán, Chiapas. They were transported to the laboratory to be washed and broken. After that, fermentations were carried out in boxes with the following operating conditions, which were the volume of cocoa with pulp and box size, for six days, at uncontrolled temperature and pH. The experiments were carried out in triplicate, an analysis of variance and multiple comparisons of means was carried out with the Tukey test (p<0.05) using the R program. The box size with a capacity of 4 kg presents the same behavior in the evaluated parameters. Regarding the box sizes with a capacity of 25 kg and 60 kg, this indicates that the cocoa beans are not affected in the physicochemical and quality characteristics by the decrease in the size of the box, making it viable to carry out fermentations. on a small scale. The use of small-scale fermentations can be an option for the evaluation of varieties where it is necessary to ferment the grains for the sensory analysis of the qualitative attributes, in addition to incorporating this micro fermentation methodology in genetic improvement programs or evaluation of processes for their optimization.