By Yi Xin, Vision Times
The cacao beans behind some of the world’s most famous chocolate bars could offer more than flavor and indulgence. Researchers from São Paulo State University in Brazil analyzing Amazonian cacao beans have found that fermentation, variety selection, and blending could potentially be used to balance the flavor consumers expect from chocolate with higher concentrations of naturally-occurring compounds and antioxidants associated with a slew of nutritional benefits.
The findings, published on Sci-Tech Daily, could eventually open new doors for Amazonian cacao beyond conventional chocolate production, including the growing market for functional and health-oriented foods.
The research also highlights a fundamental tradeoff in chocolate production: The same fermentation process responsible for developing chocolate’s characteristic flavor can reduce some of cacao’s naturally-occurring beneficial compounds.
RELATED: Turmeric, the Golden Superfood, Can Be Grown at Home
The tradeoff between flavor and nutrition
For the best of our weekly content！
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Check your email to complete sign up
Fermentation is a critical step in transforming freshly harvested cacao beans into chocolate. It helps develop their familiar aroma, color, and smoother flavor while reducing the intense bitterness and astringency of raw cacao.
But that transformation comes at a cost. Researchers found that fermentation reduced levels of polyphenols and anthocyanins, plant compounds known for their antioxidant properties. Unfermented cacao beans, by comparison, retained higher concentrations of those compounds as well as minerals including phosphorus and calcium. However, they lacked some of the desirable sensory characteristics developed during fermentation.
That leaves producers with a dilemma over how to maximize nutritional compounds without sacrificing taste and flavor, while optimizing beans for chocolate production without diminishing some of their original chemical composition.
Researchers proposed a solution borrowed from another familiar product: Coffee. Just as coffee producers blend beans from different origins, varieties, and processing methods to create particular flavor profiles, chocolate makers could potentially combine fermented and unfermented cacao beans.
Fermented beans could provide the foundation for chocolate’s characteristic aroma and flavor, while a proportion of unfermented beans could increase levels of antioxidants and other compounds lost during processing. This approach could then allow manufacturers to develop chocolate products that preserve more of cacao’s original nutritional profile without sacrificing the qualities consumers expect.
Previously undetected dompounds
Researchers also reported identifying glycine betaine and proline in the cacao samples, compounds that had not previously been detected in cacao beans, according to the study. Glycine betaine is involved in several biological processes and has been studied for its potential role in cellular protection and responses to oxidative stress. Proline, an amino acid, likewise plays important roles in cellular function.
Their presence adds another dimension to researchers’ understanding of cacao’s complex chemical composition and could warrant further investigation into its potential applications in functional foods. However, describing cacao as a “superfood” still requires caution, experts say. The term has no formal medical or scientific definition and is generally used to describe nutrient-dense foods containing relatively high levels of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, or other compounds associated with health.
The new findings do not establish Amazonian cacao as a disease-preventing food or demonstrate specific health benefits in humans. Rather, they suggest that changes in processing could help preserve more of the compounds already naturally present in cacao.
Original article
Comments