Abstract
In comparison to cocoa, little has been reported on the drying of cupuassu almonds that can be used to produce cupulate, a chocolate type product. Thus, in this study thermophysical properties of cupuassu dry almonds (moisture = 9.68 % d.b.) were determined as: thermal conductivity (k) of 0.14 kW/(m.K), specific heat (cp) of 2.86 kJ/(kg.K), thermal diffusivity (?) of 4.8·10-5 m²/s, effective diffusivity (Deff) of 9.94·10-10 - 6.29·10-10 m²/s and activation energy (Ea) of 14.90 kJ/mol. These results showed a similarity of values between cupuassu and cocoa and allows to perform more specific studies for the development of dryers for the cupuassu almonds.
Highlights
Cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum, Schumann) is a fruit belonging to the Malvaceae family and native to the Amazon region
The experiments were performed with the esteemed support of the Laboratory of Biotransformation and Organic Biocatalysis (LABIOCAT) and the Cocoa Innovation Center (CIC), both at the State University of Santa Cruz (UESC, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil), and the Executive Committee of the Cocoa Farming Plan (CEPLAC, Itabuna, Bahia, Brazil)
2.1 Fermentation of Seeds and Drying of Almonds The cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum) and cocoa (T. cacao) seeds used in this study were acquired from producers from the region of Ilhéus (Bahia, Brazil) between October 2017 and June 2018
Summary
Cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum, Schumann) is a fruit belonging to the Malvaceae family and native to the Amazon region. Its fruits can have a weight of 200 to 4,000 g containing from 15 to 50 seeds covered by a pulp (Novalli et al, 2015; Pereira et al, 2018; Ramos et al, 2020). Being cupuassu from the same family as cacao (Thebroma cacao), it shares certain sensory and physicalchemical properties with cacao Standing out among these common properties, the capability of the beans to be fermented and dried/roasted becoming almonds of great value and, the extraction of a "cupuasu butter" allow, together, the elaboration of a product very similar to chocolate which in Brazil is called cupulate or "cupuassu chocolate" (Lannes et al, 2002; Oliveira and Genovese, 2013). While the extraction of pulp is still the destination of most of the cupuassu, there is a promising production of cupulate and the technological peculiarities between the liquor (fermented and dried/toasted almonds paste) and butter (extracted by pressing the paste) of cupuassu and cocoa should be considered
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