Department of Food Technology, Food Safety and Health, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; Department of Nutrition & Food Science, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 134, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Research Group Molecular Odor Chemistry, Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems (M2S), Research Cluster Food and Biotechnology, KU Leuven Technology Campus, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Food Technology, Food Safety and Health, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Food Res Int. 2018 Sep;111:607-620. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2018.05.064. Epub 2018 May 26.
The practice of pod storage (PS) has been applied in many cocoa producing countries, especially by Ghanaian farmers over the years. However, the study of PS has not received much attention, hence, until now, its potential impact on specific flavor precursor development and implications on the flavor of cocoa beans still remains uncovered. The study was therefore aimed at exploring this possibility through physico-chemical and flavor precursor analyses, carried out on equally fermented and dried pod stored (0, 3 and 7 days) Ghanaian cocoa beans. Flavor analysis was also conducted on equally roasted pod stored cocoa beans. Through visual assessment of the pods, pulp and beans, the compelling impact of PS on fermentation index (FI) and nib acidity could be demonstrated by the various biochemical and physical changes such as respiration, moisture reduction, and cellular degradation, occurring during the process. Whereas the entire reaction of sugar degradation may be deemed complex, a clear relationship between the FI, nib acidity and the glucose content was observed. Also, PS was found to increase with marginal increase in total reducing sugars (glucose and fructose). Although the concentration of free amino acids was directly proportional to the duration of PS, within the framework of this study, a significant difference (p < .05) was only observed in the case of extended duration (7 days). Overall, 7 PS seemed to have enhanced the formation of more volatiles. This was followed by 0 PS and finally 3 PS. Suggestively, these findings could provide some indications in explaining the typical flavor profiles of the Ghanaian cocoa beans, considering the fact that 87.8% of Ghanaian farmers adhere to this practice. Meanwhile, for the chocolate industry, the surging demand for cocoa/chocolate products exhibiting unique flavors, could be partly addressed by adopting PS as a tool for varietizing the flavor capacity of "bulk" cocoa through the expression or suppression of specific flavor precursors in the raw material on the farm level, which comes with almost no additional cost.
荚果储存（PS）的做法在许多可可生产国得到了应用，尤其是加纳农民多年来一直在使用。然而，对 PS 的研究并没有受到太多关注，因此，直到现在，它对特定风味前体发展的潜在影响及其对可可豆风味的影响仍未被揭示。因此，本研究旨在通过对同样发酵和干燥的荚果储存（0、3 和 7 天）的加纳可可豆进行物理化学和风味前体分析来探索这种可能性。同样对储存荚果的烘焙可可豆进行了风味分析。通过对荚果、果肉和豆粒的视觉评估，可以证明 PS 对发酵指数（FI）和豆仁酸度的强烈影响，这是由于在储存过程中发生的各种生化和物理变化，如呼吸、水分减少和细胞降解。虽然糖降解的整个反应可能被认为是复杂的，但 FI、豆仁酸度和葡萄糖含量之间存在明显的关系。此外，还发现 PS 随着总还原糖（葡萄糖和果糖）的微量增加而增加。虽然游离氨基酸的浓度与 PS 的持续时间直接成正比，但在本研究的范围内，只有在延长的持续时间（7 天）下才观察到显著差异（p<0.05）。总体而言，7 PS 似乎增强了更多挥发性物质的形成。其次是 0 PS，最后是 3 PS。有提示性地，这些发现可以为解释加纳可可豆的典型风味特征提供一些依据，考虑到 87.8%的加纳农民都遵守这种做法。同时，对于巧克力行业来说，对具有独特风味的可可/巧克力产品的需求不断增长，可以通过采用 PS 作为一种工具来解决，即在农场层面上通过表达或抑制原料中的特定风味前体来多样化“散装”可可的风味能力，而这几乎不需要额外的成本。
