Abstract
Cupuaçu [Theobroma grandiflorum (Wild ex Spreng.) K. Schum] seeds have been employed for a long time in the Amazon region for food purposes. Similar to cocoa, processed cupuaçu pulp and seeds can be used to produce juices, ice creams, confectionary products and cupulate®, which is a similar product to chocolate. However, its market penetration requires the mastery of all processing stages to improve the food quality and safety and to make possible an efficient technology transfer to the local small farmers and communities. Based on the above, the current research work aimed at monitoring and optimizing the consecutive fermentation and drying processes of cupuaçu seeds over 7 days each, as well as storage for 90 days. A greenhouse structure incorporating the fermenter and solar drying terrace was designed to be inexpensive, versatile, easily scalable, and easy to maintain and operate by the local small farmers after a short period of training. This research effort also aimed at giving a vision for the future creation of an integrative and sustainable cupuaçu system covering the economic, social, cultural and environmental vectors. The experimental design comprised 5 batches of 100 kg of seeds each. Several microbiological and physicochemical parameters were performed and correlated with processing variables. Microbiological parameters encompassed viable counts of mesophilic microorganisms, coliforms, yeasts, and molds, whereas physicochemical measures included fermentation and drying temperature, pH, acidity, dry matter, ashes, water activity, color, total proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, and energy. The average seed fermentation temperature varied from ca. 28 to 44 °C, reaching the maximum on day 3 and a final value of ca. 31 °C. Regarding solar drying, the average seed temperatures ranged from ca. 24 °C (at the end) to 39 °C on day 3, and an initial value of ca. 29 °C. The average final seed pH value of drying was 5.34 and was kept during storage. During storage, results demonstrated the existence of significant correlations among several experimental parameters under scrutiny. Finally, bean viable counts obtained during storage unfolded acceptable values of total mesophilic bacteria well below the maximum limit. Viable counts of yeast and molds were generally found between 3 and 4 log(CFU/gsample), and total coliforms were also detected, although both were at acceptable levels and well beneath the established maximum limits for food safety.
Highlights
The pulp can be used for the preparation of various food products, the placenta can be used in the preparation of fertilizers, the pod husk/shell can be converted into handmade packaging, whereas the seeds are employed for the production of the aforementioned cupulate®, which is a product technologically similar to chocolate [3,4,5]
The cocoa fermentation process has been studied, and it was demonstrated that a consortium of compatible microorganisms—viz. Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. chevalieri, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) species and acetic acid bacterial (AAB) species—acts in synergy during fermentation and play key functions in the processing [21,22,23]
Despite the existence of numerous research studies on cupuaçu seed fermentation, which address the processing per se, the identification of microorganisms presents in the fermented seeds and the effect of seed decortication on the final quality of fermented seeds requires further studies intended at allowing scale-up, evaluating and attaining controlled fermentation methods, increasing cupuaçu bean storage time, and evaluating the capacity of filamentous fungi to produce mycotoxins [8,24,25,26,27,28]
Summary
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