Valorization of cocoa pod side streams improves nutritional and sustainability aspects of chocolate

Chocolate production faces nutritional, environmental and socio-economic challenges present in the conventional cocoa value chain. Here we developed an approach that addresses these challenges by repurposing the often-discarded pectin-rich cocoa pod endocarp and converting it into a gel. This is done using cocoa pulp juice concentrate to replace traditional sugar from sugar beets. Although swelling of fibres, proteins and starches can limit gel incorporation, our proposed chocolate formulation contains up to 20 wt% gel. It also has comparable sweet taste as traditional chocolate while offering improved nutritional value with higher fibre and reduced saturated fatty acid content. A cradle-to-factory life cycle assessment shows that large-scale production of this chocolate could reduce land use and global warming potential compared with average European dark chocolate production. The process also provides opportunities for diversification of farmers’ income and technology transfer, offering potential socio-economic benefits for cocoa-producing regions.

Supplementary Table 1: Composition of the cocoa pod endocarp.The pectin extraction in this study was performed at 90°C and pH=2.5  The NDF analysis was conducted using a fiberbag system (Fibretherm, Gerhardt Analytical Systems, Germany).A sample of 0.5 g is weighed and transferred into the fibrebag.The process consists of a boiling phase of the detergent solution, followed by two phases of boiling water used to rinse the solution in order to fully remove every neutral soluble compounds from the samples and takes approximately 2 h.Due to the detergent foaming nature of the solution, excessive foam presented a problem in the first trials, until it was standardized to add 4 ml of antifoam solution (Sigma-Aldrich, Switzerland) before beginning the process.
After the digestion and rinsing phases, each bag was rinsed with deionized water in order to remove the spreader allocated inside of the bag (accessory that aids the weighing and digestion stages) while keeping all the neutral insoluble remains in the bag.Then, the bags were placed in glass crucibles and dried in the oven at either 105°C overnight or 130°C for 2 h.After cooling them down in a desiccator, the samples were weighed and allocated in the

1 )
firebag system to continue the process with ADF.Acid neutral detergent (ADF): The acid neutral detergent (ADF) solution (5 L) was prepared with 520 mM of H 2 SO 4 96% concentrated (sulfuric acid) and 55 mM of C 1 9H 4 2BrN (Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) taken to 5 L of deionized water.The final solution had a pH of 1.The conditions and parameters for ADF methodology are the same as the ones described for NDF.The only difference is that the acid detergent solution mentioned before was used instead of a neutral detergent solution.After this, the bags were dried in the oven at either 105°C overnight or 130°C for 2 h, cooled and weighed.Then the bags, containing the acid insoluble fraction of the sample, were allocated in a specific carousel to conduct acid detergent lignin.Acid detergent lignin (ADL): This step consisted of soaking the samples in 250 ml of 72% sulfuric acid (Merck, purity 96-98%) for 3 h under a chemical fume hood.Afterwards, each sample was rinsed with deionized water until all the acid was removed.To ensure this, they were washed until the draining water reached a neutral pH of 6-8, measured using the digital pH meter.Then the bags were dried in the oven at either 105°C overnight or 130°C for 2 h.Then they were cooled in a desiccator and the weight was recorded.After this, the bags were allocated in the glass crucibles for the final step, which consisted of determining the ash content.A muffle furnace was used (LE 14/11 Nabertherm, Bremen, Germany) at 500°C overnight.After obtaining the values for NDF, ADF, and ADL, the lignocellulosic fractions were obtained using the following equations (Hindrichsen et al., 2006; Van Soest et al., 1991).The cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin %DM content were calculated as: Cellulose = ADF − ADL (Hemicellulose = N DF − ADF (2)

Table 2 :
for 2.5 h by Herbstreith and Fox GmbH & Co. KG.Germany.Fraction [g/kg dry matter] Fresh EC1Fresh EC (this study) ECP (this study) Artificial sugar solution composition.The artificial sugar solution was used for the study of the sweetening gels' material properties and colloidal stability of simplified chocolate formulations.

Table 4 :
Fiber and SFA content of chocolates compared in the lifecycle analysis.The fiber and saturated fatty acid (SFA) content in wt% of cocoa mass, cocoa butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and CPJC gel and their used wt% in the chocolate formulations F2, Euro avg, and Substitute.The exact composition of the CM without added sugar is listed in Table5.Total fiber, SFA, sugar, and ECP content for F2, Euro avg, and Substitue are given.

Table 5 :
Cocoa mass composition.The composition is specified in g/g for fats (i.e.triacylglycerides), carbohydrates, dietary fibers, and proteins.The total fat content is broken down into saturated-, monounsaturated-, and polyunsaturated fatty acids.Carbohydrate composition is broken down into sugars (i.e.mono-and disaccharides) and saccharides with higher degree of polymerization.