Chocolate production

Bot nic l nd Animal Extracts. Tinctures and fluid and soHd extracts of items such as vanilla, coffee, cocoa, and Hcorice are produced by treating the raw materials with a solvent. Vanilla is by far the most widely used extract and is often found in chocolate products, baked goods, beverages, and frozen desserts (49,52). 

The name Theobroma cacao, food of the gods, indicating both the legendary origin and the nourishing quaUties of chocolate, was bestowed upon the cacao tree by Linnaeus in 1720. All cocoa and chocolate products are derived from the cocoa bean, the seed of the fmit of this tree. Davila Garibi, a contemporary Mexican scholar, has traced the derivation of the word from basic root words of the Mayan language to its adoption as chocolate in Spanish ( ) ... 

Winnowing. Winnowing, often called cracking and fanning, is one of the most important operations in cocoa processing. It is a simple process that involves separating the nib, or kernel, from the inedible shell. Failure to remove shell results in lower quahty cocoa and chocolate products, more wear on nib grinding machines, and lower efficiency in all subsequent operations. 

The Codex Committee on Cocoa and Chocolate Products defines cocoa butter as the fat produced from one or more of the following cocoa beans, cocoa nibs, cocoa mass (chocolate Hquor), cocoa cake, expeUer cake, or cocoa dust (fines) by a mechanical process and/or with the aid of permissible solvents (10). It further states that cocoa butter shall not contain sheU fat or germ fat ia excess of the proportion ia which they occur ia the whole bean. 

Composition and Properties. Cocoa butter is a unique fat with specific melting characteristics. It is a soHd at room temperature (20°C), starts to soften around 30°C, and melts completely just below body temperature. Its distinct melting characteristic makes cocoa butter the preferred fat for chocolate products. 

Substitutes and Equivalents. In the past 25 years, many fats have been developed to replace part or all of the added cocoa butter ia chocolate-flavored products. These fats fall into two basic categories commonly known as cocoa butter substitutes and cocoa butter equivalents. Neither can be used ia the United States ia standardized chocolate products, but they are used ia small amounts, usually up to 5% of the total weight of the product, ia some European countries. 

Tempering. The state, or physical stmcture, of the fat base in which sugar, cocoa, and milk soHds are suspended is critical to the overall quaHty and stabiHty of chocolate. Production of a stable fat base is compHcated because the cocoa butter in soHdified chocolate exists in several polymorphic forms. Tempering is the process of inducing satisfactory crystal nucleation of the Hquid fat in chocolate. 

The theobromine and caffeine contents of several finished chocolate products as determined by hplc at Hershey s laboratories are presented in... 

Table 9. Theobromine and Caffeine Content of Finished Chocolate Products ...

Table 10. Amino Acid Content of Cocoa and Chocolate Products,. mg/g ...

Table 12. Vitamin Content of Various Samples of Cocoa Beans and Chocolate Products, Whole Weight Basis, mg/100 g...

Caffeine was conceived for a wide range of readers interested in the effects on human health, nutrition, and physiological function of the methylxanthine beverages and foods—tea, coffee, mate, cola beverages, and cocoa and chocolate products. These products supply one or more of the dietary methylxanthines—caffeine, theobromine and theophylline— and are an integral part of the diet of many people in many countries. The interest in the health effects of both the methylxanthines in isolation and in the products containing them has grown rapidly in recent years. 

No single book can possibly cover all aspects of the chemistry, consumption, and health effects of the methylxanthines, but I hope that this volume will help a wide variety of readers to better understand coffee, tea, mate, cola beverages, and cocoa and chocolate products and their effects on human health. 

HPLC allows a quantitative determination with relatively simple extractions. In many cases, extraction only involves a heating of the commodity with water, followed by filtration and injection onto an HPLC column. In the determination of caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline in cocoa, coffee, or tea, as well as in other foods, there is scarcely a month that passes without a new paper on this assay. Kreiser and Martin provide typical conditions for analysis.28 In their studies, samples were extracted in boiling water and filtered prior to injection onto the HPLC column. The HPLC conditions used a Bondapak reversed phase column and a mobile phase of water methanol acetic acid (74 25 1) with detection at 280 nm. This method is accurate, precise, and conserves time. It has also been adopted by the AOAC as an official method for the determination of theobromine and caffeine in cocoa beans and chocolate products.29... 

Kreiser, W.R. and Martin, R.A. Jr., High pressure liquid chromatographic determination of theobromine and caffeine in cocoa and chocolate products, JAOAC, 61,1424,1978. 

Foods derived from cocoa beans have been consumed by humans since at least 460 to 480 AD. The source of cocoa beans, the species Theobroma, contains a variety of biologically active components. These include the purine alkaloids theobromine, caffeine, and theophylline. Structurally, they are methylated xanthines and, thus, are often referred to as methylxanthines. Theobromine (3, 7-dimethylxanthine) is the predominant purine alkaloid in cocoa and chocolate. Caffeine (1, 3, 7-trimethylxanthine), the major purine alkaloid found in coffee and tea, is found in cocoa and chocolate at about one eighth the concentration of theobromine. Only trace amounts of theophylline (1, 3-dimethylxanthine) are detected in cocoa and chocolate products. 

This chapter defines the methylxanthine composition of raw and processed cocoa, as well as various chocolate foods and beverages. Patterns of consumption for cocoa and chocolate products are discussed and dietary intakes of caffeine from chocolate products are reported. 

Chocolate liquor is the solid or semiplastic food prepared by finely grinding the nib of the cacao bean. It is commonly called baking chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, or bitter chocolate and, in Europe, is frequently referred to as chocolate mass or cocoa paste. Chocolate liquor is essentially the starting point from which all chocolate products are produced. Table 5 lists the theobromine and caffeine content of 22 various chocolate liquor samples determined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The liquors averaged 1.22% theobromine and 0.214% caffeine.27- 28 The ratio of theobromine to caffeine ranged from 2.5 1 to 23.0 1. 

On the basis of United States Department of Commerce Shipment data, Americans consumed about 5 kg per person of chocolate confectionery products in 1993.52 Of this quantity, enrobed and molded chocolate products comprised 53%, solid chocolate products with or without inclusions were 22%, and panned or assorted chocolate products made up the remaining 23%. Per capita consumption of chocolate confectionery products in 1993 increased 4.3% over the previous year and 0.7 kg per person since 1983. 

Cook, R., Chocolate Production and Use, Books for Industry, New York. 1972, chap. 3-4. 

Kreiser, W., Martin, R., Cacao products — high pressure liquid chromatographic determination of theobromine in cocoa and chocolate products, J. Assoc. Off. Anal. Chem., 61, 1424, 1978. 

Kiefer, B. A., Martin, R. A., Determination of theobromine and caffeine in chocolate products by HPLC. Unpublished data, 1987. 

Brereton, P., Hague, M., Wood, R., The determination of theobromine in cocoa and chocolate products, /. Assoc. Publ. Analysts, 30, 23, 1994. 

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