Utilization Of Cocoa Shell Powder In Dark Chocolate Production

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate effects of replacing cocoa powder by cocoa shells (CS) in making dark chocolate. The dark chocolate samples were examined with different particle sizes of CS 125µm, 250µm and 355µm, and different ratios replacement varying from 5 to 20% (weight of CS/ total weight of chocolate sample). Sensory quality, total phenolic, flavonoid content, antioxidant capacity were determined to estimate the chocolate quality. Moreover, color and texture were also measured to investigate the stability of chocolate during storage with different temperature (4oC and room temperature) in 3 weeks. Overall, replacing 20% CS at 125µm in chocolate production resulted in significantly higher total phenolic content (6.9±0.2 mg gallic acid GAE/g of chocolate) and total flavonoid content (14.5±0.1 mg rutin RTE/g of chocolate) than results of normal dark chocolate (6.4±0.2 mg GAE/g of chocolate and 13.6±0.2mg RTE/g of chocolate, respectively) while antioxidant capacity of this sample (37.1±0.1%) had no significant difference from the control one. On the other hand, the sensory evaluation indicated that no significant difference showed in all attributes between sample with 20% CS replacement at 125µm and the control. However, after 3 weeks storage, even though bioactive compounds showed no significant change in different storage conditions (4oC and room temperature) and the sensory evaluation showed no significant difference in all attributes during storage, its color became whiter at room temperature while darker at 4oC and its texture became harder at 4oC while softer at room temperature. Softer in texture and lighter in color of modified chocolate samples indicate fat bloom.