Physicochemical, microbial and sensory properties of wild carob bar: A shelf-life study

Abstract

Carob, a plant native to Cyprus, is classified into two species: cultivated carob and wild carob. The cultivated carob is primarily used to make food products such as syrup, whereas the wild carob is fed to animals or discarded. However, despite being underutilized, wild carob has the potential to be an alternative to cocoa due to its high dietary fibre, active compounds, and cocoa-like aroma. This is salient because of the estimation that cocoa may not satisfy the future demand for chocolate-based products in the market due to its flat supply. As a result, this study aims to evaluate the efficacy of wild carob as an alternative for cocoa by investigating its shelf-life properties in bar production compared to chocolate bars. Hence, various shelf-life analyses involving the physiochemical, microbial, and sensorial properties of Wild Carob Bar (WCB) were evaluated for 12 weeks of storage at room temperature and 4 °C with the control sample (chocolate bar). Results show that WCB had significantly (p < 0.05) better water activity (0.415 aw) but no difference in terms of color as compared to the control sample. Also, wild carob as a cocoa substitute was observed to improve the shelf-life of the bar when the total plate count and yeast & mould count were found to be coherent with the standard <1.0 × 104 and ≤5 cfu·g-1, respectively. Finally, WCB recorded a significantly higher overall sensorial acceptability at 0 days (3.95) and three months (4.20) of storage compared to the control sample (3.75). Hence, findings suggest that wild carob has the potential to act as a cocoa substitute.