USE OF ENZYMES AND LEAVENING AGENTS AS A STRATEGY TO REDUCE THE PRESENCE OF CADMIUM IN THE FERMENTATION PROCESS OF Theobroma cacao L. ALMONDS

Abstract

Ecuador is one of the leading producers of fine aroma cocoa worldwide. In 2019, Ecuador became the leading exporter of cocoa beans in the Americas and ranked fourth worldwide. The objective of this research was to use enzymes and yeasts as a strategy to decrease cadmium content during the fermentation of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.). A completely randomized design with a bifactorial arrangement was used, where factor A corresponds to fermentation time (48, 96, and 120 hours); and factor B measured the type of starter culture (fermentation; fermentation + mother yeast; fermentation + mother yeast + PPO). A total of nine treatments were evaluated and treatments T1, T2, and T3 were the controls. Tukey's test was used with a p<0.05 to find differences between treatment means. Treatment T9 presented the highest fermentation percentage, with 89.33% in the cut-off test. T5 reached 5.48% moisture, and T7 presented 3.54% ash and 7.42 g.kg-1 of glucose. At the same time, T2 registered 14.99% protein. Of the AxB interaction, T3 presented the lowest cadmium content 0.20 mg.kg-1, in the cocoa beans. In the sensory evaluation, there were no differences between treatments. In conclusion, the increase in fermentation time and the addition of yeast and enzymes decreased cadmium content in dry cocoa beans. Likewise, for the main effect of fermentation time, the lowest cadmium content was achieved when cocoa beans were fermented for 120 hours.