title: Inline roasting hyphenated with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry as an innovative approach for assessment of cocoa fermentation quality and aroma formation potential.
abstract: Today, the cocoa industry is in great need of faster and robust analytical techniques to objectively assess incoming cocoa quality. In this work, inline roasting hyphenated with a cooled injection system coupled to a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (ILR-CIS-GC-MS) has been explored for the first time to assess fermentation quality and/or overall aroma formation potential of cocoa. This innovative approach resulted in the in-situ formation of relevant cocoa aroma compounds. After comparison with data obtained by headspace solid phase micro extraction (HS-SPME-GC-MS) on conventional roasted cocoa beans, ILR-CIS-GC-MS data on unroasted cocoa beans showed similar formation trends of important cocoa aroma markers as a function of fermentation quality. The latter approach only requires small aliquots of unroasted cocoa beans, can be automatated, requires no sample preparation, needs relatively short analytical times (<1h) and is highly reproducible.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Odor Chemistry, KU Leuven Technology Campus Ghent, Gebroeders De Smetstraat 1, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: jim.vandurme@kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Durme
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Odor Chemistry, KU Leuven Technology Campus Ghent, Gebroeders De Smetstraat 1, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ingels
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Odor Chemistry, KU Leuven Technology Campus Ghent, Gebroeders De Smetstraat 1, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Winne
mesh_terms: D002099:Cacao / Q000737:chemistry*; D005285:Fermentation; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D012903:Smell; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals
keywords: Aroma potential; Chemical analysis; Cocoa; Fermentation; Roasting