Cacao quality: Highlighting selected attributes

ABSTRACT

World demand for cacao and the requirements for quality beans have increased every year. Research studies have developed standards for aspects of cacao quality that meet industrial criteria as well as international import and export legislation that is aimed at food security. This review focused on selected attributes of cacao bean quality. These attributes include the amount of acids, simple carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, lipids, phenolic substances, and methylxanthines. Other attributes are bean moisture content, quantity of mineral nutrients, and presence of potentially toxic elements. Microbiological and organoleptic attributes are also of interest. Future research on cacao quality should focus on bean sampling, geographical location of plantations, genetic diversity of the cacao material, and standardized analytical methods for determination of organic and mineral substances.

KEYWORDS:

• Mycotoxins
• polyphenols
• potentially toxic elements
• standard cacao
• Theobroma cacao L.

Funding

This article is part of the project “Linking soil quality and cacao quality in Bahia, Brazil”. To run fundamental steps of this research, the corresponding author was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) with a Postdoctoral fellowship.

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of the project “Linking soil quality and cacao quality in Bahia, Brazil”. To run fundamental steps of this research, the corresponding author was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) with a Postdoctoral fellowship.