Impact of alkalization conditions on the phytochemical content of cocoa powder and the aroma of cocoa drinks

Assessment of cocoa powder changes during the alkalization process using untargeted metabolomics

“…Although other authors have reported a decrease in the level of these compounds when the alkalization degree increases (Li et al, 2012), the trend observed in this work corresponds to a slight increase of theobromine and caffeine levels at the highest alkalization degree in comparison with that obtained for natural cocoa. Sioriki et al reported that alkalization did not produce any significant change in the concentration of theobromine in the cocoa powder which is in agreement with our results (Sioriki et al, 2021(Sioriki et al, , 2022. Regarding caffeine, these authors reported a decrease in the caffeine content by 22-35% in the first min of alkalization while no significant changes were observed with higher alkalization temperature and longer times.…”

“…Despite the sweet flavor of chocolate (the most known cocoa-based product) cocoa is characterized by presenting acidity, astringency, and bitterness properties. These non-desirable properties could be reduced using an alkalization (or dutching) process (Sioriki et al, 2021; which is based on the combination of an alkali solution (usually NaOH and K 2 CO 3 in concentration from 1 to 6%) with cocoa. A particular temperature, (from 60 to 130 • C), and pressure (from 0.10 to 1.22 MPa) are applied during a period between 5 and 180 min (Valverde-García et al, 2020).…”

The effect of cocoa alkalization on the non-volatile and volatile mood-enhancing compounds

“…Non-alkalized and alkalized cocoa powders were dispersed in water and their volatile profiles were analyzed with a HS-SPME-GC-MS system, as described in Sioriki et al (2021). 4-Methylpyridine (1.045 µL of a 0.957 mg/mL solution) was used as internal standard (Lemarcq et al, 2020;Ruiz-Hernández et al, 2018).…”

Exploring the Nutritional Composition and Bioactive Compounds in Different Cocoa Powders

“…They reported values of 7.4–8.3 mg/g in theobromine and 2.1–2.2 mg/g in caffeine [ 59 ]. In another study, they confirmed that no significant reductions or increments take place in cocoa during alkalization process due to temperature, time or alkali concentration [ 60 ]. In this regard, the results found in this study agree with those related to the total methylxanthines and caffeine content, but different results were obtained for theobromine.…”

“…Interestingly, other authors reported a significant increase in catechin content with alkalization with temperature, time and the alkali NaOH process, but a significant reduction in the epicatechin content of Forastero cocoa with 10–12% fat [ 59 , 60 ]. Similar results, i.e., a 40% increase in catechin of, but a 23–66% reduction in epicatechin and proanthocyanidins, were reported by Stanley et al when cocoa powder was alkalized with NaOH (final pH 8.0) at 92 °C for up to 1 h [ 61 ].…”