Enhanced pink-red hues in processed powders from unfermented cacao beans

Abstract

Cocoa and chocolate are widely consumed by humans, and habitual intake is associated with benefits to cardiovascular health, which has been attributed to its polyphenolic content. Classically, in the processing of cacao beans, a final brown color has been preferred over the natural red-violet hues present in raw beans as a marker of proper processing and the development of the characteristic chocolate aroma and flavors. Recently, the industry has shown a renewed interest in the purple-red hues of cacao since the introduction of ruby chocolate to the market. Here, we present a processing method to preserve the composition of flavan-3-ols and procyanidins and to retain pink-red hues in powders produced from unfermented cocoa beans, in which polyphenol-degrading enzymes were first inactivated at 95 °C followed by fast soaking in 1.5 M citric acid and immediate dehydration and grinding to obtain powders with nearly 150 mg/g flavan-3-ols and procyanidins and stable pink-red hues according to CIE L*a*b* color measurements. These procyanidin-rich cacao powders could be added to chocolate products to reach the desired health properties of eating polyphenol-rich chocolates in the new context of the preferred pink shades of the so-called fourth chocolate.