Cocoa types

White Chocolate. There is at present no standard of identity in the United States for white chocolate. Virtually all current uses of the term white chocolate do not meet the standards for chocolate, which prescribes the presence of ground cacao nibs. This restrictive requirement has acted as a practical deterrent to companies developing and marketing white chocolate-type products in the United States. When such products have been introduced and marketed in the United States, companies have had to label them with fanciful names to avoid the standardized labeling issues. In other countries where a standard of identity for white chocolate exists and where a minimum amount of cocoa butter is required by law, consumers have available to them a variety of easily recognizable products. 

Blending. Most chocolate and cocoa products consist of blends of beans chosen for flavor and color characteristics. Cocoa beans may be blended before or after roasting, or nibs may be blended before grinding. In some cases finished Hquors are blended. Common, or basic beans, are usually African or BraziUan and constitute the bulk of most blends. More expensive flavor beans from Venezuela, Trinidad, Ecuador, etc are added to impart specific characteristics. The blend is deterrnined by the end use or type of product desired. 

Cocoa powder (cocoa) is prepared by pulverizing the remaining material after part of the fat (cocoa butter) is removed from chocolate Hquor. The U.S. chocolate standards define three types of cocoas based on their fat content. These are breakfast, or high fat cocoa, containing not less than 22% fat cocoa, or medium fat cocoa, containing less than 22% fat but more than 10% and low fat cocoa, containing less than 10% fat. 

Cocoa powders not treated with alkaH are known as cocoa or natural cocoa. Natural cocoa has a pH of about 4.8 to 5.8 depending on the type of... 

Codex has also defined the various types of cocoa butter ia commercial trade (10). Press cocoa butter is defined as fat obtained by pressure from cocoa nib or chocolate Hquor. In the United States, this is often referred to as prime pure cocoa butter. ExpeUer cocoa butter is defined as the fat prepared by the expeUer process. In this process, cocoa butter is obtained direcdy from whole beans by pressing ia a cage press. ExpeUer butter usuaUy has a stronger flavor and darker color than prime cocoa butter and is filtered with carbon or otherwise treated prior to use. Solvent extracted cocoa butter is cocoa butter obtained from beans, nibs, Hquor, cake, or fines by solvent extraction (qv), usuaUy with hexane. Refined cocoa butter is any of the above cocoa butters that has been treated to remove impurities or undesirable odors and flavors. 

Siace cocoa butter is a natural fat, derived from different varieties of cocoa beans, no single set of specifications or chemical characteristics can apply. Codex has attempted to define the physical and chemical parameters of the various types of cocoa butter (14) (Table 5). 

Cocoa butter substitutes of all types enjoy widespread use ia the United States chiefly as ingredients ia chocolate-flavored products. Cocoa butter equivalents are not widely used because of their higher price and limited supply. 

Expression Dewaterings of Fibrous Materials. Fibrous materials are frequently dewatered in belt-filter, screw, disk, and roU presses and in batch pot and cage presses. Table 1 Hsts appHcations of screw, roU, and pot presses. Screw and high pressure belt presses are continuous and have replaced batch pot and cage presses in most appHcations. Traditionally, however, batch presses have been used for squee2ing cocoa butter from cocoa beans, which require pressures up to 41 MPa (6000 psi) (39). A description of many types of batch presses is included in Reference 40. 

The quantity, quality and purity of the template DNA are important factors in successful PGR amplification. The PGR is an extremely sensitive method capable of detecting trace amounts of DNA in a crop or food sample, so PGR amplification is possible even if a very small quantity of DNA is isolated from the sample. DNA quality can be compromised in highly processed foods such as pastries, breakfast cereals, ready-to-eat meals or food additives owing to the DNA-degrading action of some manufacturing processes. DNA purity is a concern when substances that inhibit the PGR are present in the sample. For example, cocoa-containing foodstuffs contain high levels of plant secondary metabolites, which can lead to irreversible inhibition of the PGR. It is important that these substances are removed prior to PGR amplification. Extraction and purification protocols must be optimized for each type of sample. 

The first important technical development in the chocolate manufacturing process occurred when water-powered mills superseded the use of manual labor to grind cocoa beans. This led to the establishment of many chocolate factories from 1804 to 1840. Early production consisted entirely of a type of chocolate beverage that was somewhat indigestible since none of the cocoa butter was removed during processing. In 1828, the Dutch firm of Van Houten invented the cocoa press, which facilitated the production of cocoa powder by partial removal of the cocoa butter from beans. 

Asamoa and Wurziger tabulated the caffeine content of a variety of cocoa beans.22 The mean concentration (percentage in fat-free samples) in Amelonado and Amazonas beans, respectively, after 5 d of fermentation at various stages of maturity were green beans 0.06,0.19 yellow 0.09,0.18 orange 0.08, 0.23 and black 0.10, 0.22. These results confirmed significant differences between the two varieties and also the low caffeine content of Forastero-type beans. The caffeine content of 16 other samples of various... 

Most chocolate is consumed in the form of chocolate confectionery. Sweet chocolate is produced from chocolate liquor with the addition of sugar and cocoa butter. Sometimes called dark chocolate, sweet chocolate must contain at least 15% chocolate liquor, but may contain as much as 50%. Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate consists of a minimum of 35% chocolate liquor. The chocolate liquor content results in sweet and semisweet chocolate containing the highest amount of theobromine and caffeine per serving of any type of chocolate confectionery (Table 9). Within brands of sweet chocolate, there is wide variation in the methylxanthine... 

This chapter has compiled and evaluated information on the methylxanthine composition of cocoa and various chocolate foods and beverages, as well as the consumption pattern for these commodities. Cacao is the major natural source of the xanthine base theobromine. Small amounts of caffeine are present in the bean along with trace amounts of theophylline. Numerous factors, including varietal type and fermentation process, influence the methylxanthine content of beans. 

Caffeine consumption is primarily due to coffee, tea and soft drinks. In the U.S., it is estimated that coffee contributes to 75% of the total caffeine intake, tea is 15%, and soda with caffeine accounts for 10% 5 chocolate and other caffeine-containing foods and medications contribute relatively little to overall caffeine exposure. Caffeine also varies by sources tea leaves contain 1.5 to 3.5% caffeine kola nuts contain 2% caffeine and roasted coffee beans contain 0.75 to 1.5% caffeine.6 Coffee varies in caffeine content some analyses have estimated that caffeine may range from 0.8 to 1.8%, depending on the type of coffee.7 Crops of coffee, tea, and cocoa are very similar in their production periods and their useful life in production. Typically coffee, tea, and cocoa trees can be productive with crops every 5 years for a total period of 40 years,8 or an estimated 8 yields per tree. 

Alkaloids are compounds that contain nitrogen in a heterocyclic ring and are commonly found in about 15-20% of all vascular plants. Alkaloids are subclassified on the basis of the chemical type of their nitrogen-containing ring. They are formed as secondary metabolites from amino acids and usually present a bitter taste accompanied by toxicity that should help to repel insects and herbivores. Alkaloids are found in seeds, leaves, and roots of plants such as coffee beans, guarana seeds, cocoa beans, mate tea leaves, peppermint leaves, coca leaves, and many other plant sources. The most common alkaloids are caffeine, theophylline, nicotine, codeine, and indole... 

Human foods that are particularly rich in copper (20 to 400 mg Cu/kg) include oysters, crustaceans, beef and lamb livers, nuts, dried legumes, dried vine and stone fruits, and cocoa (USEPA 1980). In humans, copper is present in every tissue analyzed (Schroeder et al. 1966). A 70-kg human male usually contains 70 to 120 mg of copper (USEPA 1980). The brain cortex usually contains 18% of the total copper, liver 15%, muscle 33%, and the remainder in other tissues — especially the iris and choroid of the eye. Brain gray matter (cortex) has significantly more copper than white matter (cerebellum) copper tends to increase with increasing age in both cortex and cerebellum. In newborns, liver and spleen contain about 50% of the total body burden of copper (USEPA 1980). Liver copper concentrations were usually elevated in people from areas with soft water (Schroeder et al. 1966). Elevated copper concentrations in human livers are also associated with hepatic disease, tuberculosis, hypertension, pneumonia, senile dementia, rheumatic heart disease, and certain types of cancer (Schroeder et al. 1966). 

The cacao plant, Theobroma cacao, is the source of chocolate which is well known and highly prized in international commerce. The cacao pods contain beans which are fermented and pressed to provide a brown liquid which is the raw material for chocolate. The press cake is ground and sold as cocoa and it also provides a brown colorant. The pods, beans, shells, husks and stems have also been suggested as colorants. They contain a very complex mixture of acyl acids, leucoanthocyanins, flavonoid polymers, tannins, and catechin-type polymers.33... 

A glance at Tables 41 and 4.2 illustrates how caffeine cuts across society, trade, politics, and industry to become the drug of choice for billions of people. The amount of caffeine in a particular product, as well as the amount consumed, can vary enormously. The amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee varies with the type of bean, the roasting, and the type of brewing method employed. The cup size adds another variable. Tea actually has a higher concentration of caffeine than coffee, but the extraction of the caffeine from coffee is more efficient than that of tea. If you want more caffeine in your tea, however, you only need to brew it for a longer period of time. By weight, cocoa has the least amount of caffeine, but it also has the... 

Another refinement in the classification of types of experiments depends on the initial load of cocoa butter. For small amounts, the mixture appears in a homogeneous single phase. On the other hand, when the initial amount increases, two phases are present. 

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