COCOA PRODUCTS (COCOA BUTTER & COCOA POWDER)

Cocoa is the product of the fruit of the cocoa tree (lat. Theobroma cacao), which requires a hot, wet climate, a mean shade temperature of 27°C, and well-distributed rainfall. This is why it can only be grown in regions within 20º latitude of the Equator.

Although the cocoa tree is indigenous to Latin America, Africa today accounts for 70% of the world’s cocoa bean production. Cocoa farming is mostly manual, requiring significant expertise and most cocoa in Africa is grown on small family farms of 2-5 hectares. Next to the Ivory Coast and Ghana, other major cocoa producing countries are Nigeria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia.

The cocoa is a very unusual looking tree, with yellow, green and red coloured fleshy fruit pods, about 25 cm long, hanging directly from its trunk and branches. The cocoa beans are embedded within a sticky, white, sweet tasting pulp. At harvest, the cocoa bean has to have reached the proper level of ripeness as under-ripe or over-ripe pods will have a negative impact on the bean’s cocoa flavour.

Raw cocoa beans are bitter and quite inedible. Two processes are required to turn the raw bean into the raw material for chocolate: fermentation and drying. Once the beans have been removed from the pods they are stacked, covered and left to ferment for 3-9 days. The process generates high temperatures of about 50ºC activating enzymes in the beans to form compounds that produce the chocolate flavour when the beans are roasted. The fermentation process must have been concluded properly. Too little fermentation and the desired cocoa taste does not develop fully, too much fermentation and undesirable “off tastes” develop.

AFRICAN COUNTRIES SUCH AS THE IVORY COAST, GHANA, NIGERIA AND CAMEROON TODAY ACCOUNT FOR OVER 70% OF THE WORLD’S COCOA BEAN PRODUCTION.

Cocoa Powder (Cocoa) is the food prepared by pulverizing the material remaining after the part of fat (Cocoa Powder) is removed from chocolate liquor. The V.S.chocolate standards define three types of cocoa based on their fat content. These are

• Breakfast or high fat cocoa containing not less than 22% fat.

• Cocoa, or medium fat cocoa containing less than 22% but more than 10%

• Low fat cocoa, containing less than 10% fat.

Cocoa powder production today is an important part of the cocoa and chocolate industry, because of increased consumption of chocolate – flavoured products.

Cocoa powder is the basic flavouring ingredient in most chocolate flavoured cookies, biscuits, cakes and ice cream. It is also used extensively in the production of confectionary coating for candy bars.

Commercial cocoa powder is produced for various specific uses and many cocos are alkali treated or “Dutched” to produce distinctive colors and flavour. The alkali process can involve the treatment of nibs, chocolate liquor or cocoa with a wide variety of alkalizing agents.

Cocoa powders not treated with alkali are known as cocoa, natural cocoa. Natural cocoa has as ph at about 5.4 to 5.8 depending upon the type of cocoa beans used alkali processed cocoa ranges in ph from 6 to as high as 8.5.

Cocoa powder and cocoa butter

The pleasant and sometimes addictive experience of eating chocolate is mainly due to the unique qualities of cocoa butter, which is extracted from cocoa beans along with cocoa powder. This pleasant experience, enjoyed by millions of chocolate eater has ensured that the cocoa crop has achieved major economic importance in many tropical countries. In fact, its value exceeds that of tea.

Cacao or cocoa beans were probably commercially exploited first by the Aztecs when the Spanish Colonized part of America in the 15th and 16th centuries, they brought back the beans from Mexico to Europe for use in drinks. But it was not until the 19th century that chocolate was developed.

The cocoa plant is an evergreen tree growing 5 to 10 m. (16 to 33 ft.) in height, originating from tropical rain forests. Flowers and fruit (Pods) are produced continuously at eyes located on the trunk or the heavier branches.

The industrially important products from cocoa pods – cocoa liquor, cocoa powder and cocoa butter are both used to make chocolate such as chocolate Spread , chocolate syrup.

The principal ingredient of cocoa butter is triacylglycerol, which has a very special fatty acid composition. Unlike other plant edible fats, which are usually oil, cocoa butter is enriched in saturated fatty acids so that it is solid under normal condition. The sensation beloved of chocolate addicts, when they bite into a chocolate bar is largely caused by heat adsorption from the tongue as the fat melts.

The unique characteristics of melting behaviour and stability exhibited by cocoa, butter are due to its high stearate content in addition to the usual palmitate, the most common saturated fatty acid in plants.

Complex Factor

There are a number of the complex factors controlling the production of cocoa butter. The identification of these factor will allow existing suppliers of cocoa-butter to better define those environmental condition that have a major effect on cocoa butter quality, Also it should be possible to identify cultivars with particularly useful properties and which can be used preferentially for higher quality cocoa butter production.

The global cocoa products market size was valued at $24.5 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% to reach a value of $30.2 billion in 2026.

It is intended to manufacture various cocoa products from Cocoa Beans with processing capacity 1500 Tons/Year as a Green Field Project. The products proposed to be manufactured are

a) Cocoa Butter
b) Cocoa Powder