Study of the physical and chemical changes during the maturation of three cocoa clones, EET8, CCN51, and ICS60

Abstract

BACKGROUND Colombia is known for its production of fine and aromatic cocoa; however, the lack of homogeneity in the ripeness stage of cocoa fruit affects the final quality of cocoa beans. Therefore, the aim of this work was to identify parameters that can be use as indicators of ripeness in cocoa fruit in order to homogenize the characteristics of raw cocoa used in the production of cocoa‐products industry. The parameters evaluated were fruit, seed and pod weight, firmness, color, polar and equatorial diameters of the fruit, seed moisture content, total titratable acidity, pH, and total soluble solids of pulp. RESULTS Factors such as seed weight, firmness, diameters, total soluble solids, pH, and acidity were affected by the clone factor, whereas seed weight, pH, and total titratable acidity were affected by ripeness stage. CONCLUSION Identification of indicators of ripeness for cocoa fruit is a complex task due to the influence of the clone on the evolution of the physicochemical characteristics of cocoa fruit during its maturation process. Thus, indicators must be developed for each clone, and at least two parameters among color, pH, and total titratable acidity should be used to determine the ripeness stage of cocoa fruit. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Mass Balance and Compositional Analysis of Biomass Outputs from Cacao Fruits

“…Sugar concentration in CME depends on many factors, such as fruit ripeness, rainfall, crop conditions, the time of year, and cacao variety, among others. Sugar accumulation can be enhanced by more prolonged exposure of the fruit to the sun [ 75 ]. A Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) of 0.63 suggests a direct correlation between the sugar content in CME and rainfall in the area.…”

Determinación de la madurez de mazorcas de Cacao, haciendo uso de redes neuronales convolucionales en un sistema embebido

“…Dicho valor de mAP puede ser explicado por las siguientes razones. Primero, la diferencia de capacidad computacional, puesto que Redmon & Farhadi (2018) usan una GPU Pascal Titan X con 10.97 TFLOPS, mientras que la usada en el presente trabajo es 1050Ti Max Q con 2.18 TFLOPS, por lo cual fue necesario usar un modelo Tiny que presenta menor eficacia; Segundo, según Cubillos et al, (2019) las mazorcas de cacao no presentan madurez uniforme, por tanto, las distintas categorías presentan colores similares lo que dificulta su diferenciación de manera artificial. Tercero, durante la etapa de etiquetado se presentaron dudas respecto a la clasificación de ciertas mazorcas como consecuencia de la similitud en sus colores (error de origen antrópico).…”

“…Ahora bien, es importante señalar que soportar el proceso de identificación de madurez en las capacidades sensoriales del cacaotero puede llegar a generar incongruencias durante la estandarización del proceso, ya que el color junto con las tonalidades de un producto maduro son diferentes según la variedad de cacao (Perez B & Contreras M, 2017;Ramos Ospino & Gómez Álvarez, 2019). En añadidura, en una mazorca de cualquier variedad, los colores que ésta expone no se distribuyen de manera homogénea, presentando así tonalidades diferentes o, en el peor de los casos, colores distintos (Cubillos et al, 2019), lo que dificulta generar una estandarización de procesos y/o herramientas que permitan recrear el proceso de identificación del nivel de madurez de manera global (Taiwo & Bart-Plange, 2016) y, por tanto, se suelen considerar factores adicionales como la exposición a la luz solar, humedad, altura, entre otros, con el fin de determinar el instante adecuado para cosechar, aun cuando ello implica el desarrollo de modelos más complejos (CAOBISCO/ECA/FCC, 2015).…”

Growth, respiration and physicochemical changes during the maturation of cacao fruits

“…These factors determine cropping patterns and, thus, have practical significance. 3 Cubillos et al 4 showed that the color index in some cacao clones increases with the maturation process; however, there are clones where this variable does not increase. Therefore, color is not always an adequate maturity index.…”

“…5 The maturity stage of the cacao fruit is a decisive factor in the development of the fermentation phase, directly affecting the sensory quality of the final product. [4][5][6] When collecting overripe fruits, germinated, dry, or diseased seeds may be obtained, adversely affecting the post-harvest process. 1 The temperature during cacao fruit formation is a factor that affects its physiological development and maturation.…”