Cocoa Fermentation III: Improvement of Cocoa Fermentation by Inoculated with Selected Mixed Culture in Laboratory and Farm Trial

Abstract

In studied improvement of cocoa fermentation by inoculated with selected culture in laboratoryscale the microorganisms used were 3 strains of alcohol-producing yeasts, pectinase-producing yeasts and bacteria, and 6 strains of acetic acid bacteria. After cocoa fermentation in 5 kg batches of each strains, the strains which showed better results in fully fermented (4/4F) cocoa by cut-test method were Saccharomyces cerevisiae (KU-Y77), Saccharomyces chevalieri (KU-Y150) and Acetobacter aceti (KU-A72). The optimum ratio of these strains in 20 kg cocoa batches were 1.5:1.0:1.0 (% weight) which given fully fermented cocoa in 81.7-83.5% where as 43.7-61.0% were found in natural fermentation batches. Four farm-trials cocoa fermentation experiment with inoculated mix-culture were carried on 4 and 6 days. The results showed fully fermented cocoa in 79-84% which was indicated as cocoa FAO grade 1 standard. In the same time, the cocoa fermentation period was able to reduce from 6 days to 4 days. Anyhow, the utilization of inoculum in small scale (20-40 kg) showed promising. However, the quality of mix-culture fermented cocoa should be further investigated by sensory evaluation method.