Uso de enzimas y levaduras como estrategia para disminuir la presencia de cadmio en el proceso de fermentación de almendras de Theobroma cacao L.

Abstract

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