Monitoring of Cocoa Volatiles Produced during Roasting by Selected Ion Flow Tube‐Mass Spectrometry (SIFT‐MS)

Abstract

Selected ion flow tube-mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) was used to measure the real-time concentrations of cocoa volatiles in the headspace during roasting. Alkalized and unalkalized Don Homero and Arriba cocoa beans were roasted at 120, 150, and 170 °C in a rotary roaster. The concentrations of total alcohols, acids, aldehydes, esters, ketones, and alkylpyrazines increased, peaked, and decreased within the timeframe used for typical roasting. The concentrations of alkylpyrazines and Strecker aldehydes increased as the roasting temperature increased from 120 to 170 °C. For most of the volatile compounds, there was no significant difference between Arriba and Don Homero beans, but Arriba beans showed higher concentrations of 2-heptanone, acetone, ethyl acetate, methylbutanal, phenylacetaldehyde, and trimethylpyrazine. For unalkalized Don Homero beans (pH 5.7), the time to peak concentration decreased from 13.5 to 7.4 min for pyrazines, and from 12.7 to 7.4 min for aldehydes as the roasting temperature increased from 120 to 170 °C. Also, at 150 °C roasting, the time to peak concentration was shortened from 9 to 5.1 min for pyrazines, and from 9.1 to 5 min for aldehydes as the pH increased from 5.7 to 8.7. SIFT-MS allows for real-time monitoring of the key volatile compounds contributing to chocolate flavor, with minimal sample preparation, thus can be used to facilitate adjusting the roasting conditions, such as temperature and time, to optimize chocolate flavor during roasting. Real-time monitoring during roasting can also be used to evaluate the flavor quality of different types of beans by comparing the concentrations of key flavor compounds.