CONACYT-Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico de Veracruz, Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo en Alimentos, M. A. de Quevedo 2779, Veracruz, Ver. C.P. 91897, Mexico.
Department of Agricultural, Forest, and Food Science, University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095, Grugliasco, Torino, Italy.
Int J Food Microbiol. 2019 Jul 16;301:41-50. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2019.05.002. Epub 2019 May 7.
Fermentation is an essential process step to develop precursor compounds for aroma and flavour characteristics of chocolate, as well as preventing germination of the cocoa bean. Despite the importance of the role of microorganisms during the chocolate production, to date, there are some discrepancies of the "cocobiota" community found during fermentation and the impact of starter culture in fermented cocoa beans. This review provides both a detailed overview of the starter cultures used in fermented cocoa beans and the microbial diversity involved during this process, and an in-depth discussion of the methods used to identify these microorganisms. In this review, we included only published articles from 2008 to 2018 in English language. A total of forty-seven studies contributed to the description of the cocobiota from 13 different countries. In detail, we observed that the most common fermentation method used is the wooden box, followed by heap. Interestingly, 37% of the studies cited in this review did not mention the type of cocoa variety studied. Most of the techniques used to identify the microbiota are fingerprinting based (DGGE); however, few studies have been using next-generation technologies to elucidate the possible functions and interactions among microbes. Our results showed a greater diversity of yeasts if compared with bacterial involved in the fermentation. This review will help researchers seeking to design starter cultures to drive cocoa bean fermentation, and thus achieve a homogenous mass of fermented cocoa beans as well as serve as a guide for assessing methodologies for the identification of microorganisms.
发酵是开发巧克力香气和风味特征前体化合物以及防止可可豆发芽的重要过程步骤。尽管微生物在巧克力生产过程中起着重要的作用，但迄今为止，在发酵过程中发现的“可可共生生物群”和发酵可可豆中起始培养物的作用存在一些差异。本综述既提供了发酵可可豆中使用的起始培养物的详细概述，也涉及了该过程中涉及的微生物多样性，并深入讨论了用于鉴定这些微生物的方法。在本综述中，我们仅纳入了 2008 年至 2018 年以英文发表的文章。共有 47 项研究有助于描述来自 13 个不同国家的可可共生生物群。具体来说，我们观察到最常用的发酵方法是木箱发酵，其次是堆肥发酵。有趣的是，在本综述中引用的研究中有 37%没有提到所研究的可可品种类型。用于识别微生物区系的大多数技术是基于指纹图谱（DGGE）的；然而，少数研究已经使用下一代技术来阐明微生物之间可能的功能和相互作用。我们的结果显示，与参与发酵的细菌相比，酵母的多样性更大。本综述将有助于研究人员设计起始培养物来驱动可可豆发酵，从而实现发酵可可豆的同质质量，并作为评估微生物鉴定方法的指南。
