Cocoa pulp, the white mucilage that surrounds cocoa beans, is the main substrate in cocoa bean fermentation and is rich in macro- and micronutrients.
Studies indicated that the average yield of pulp which can be extracted from one ton of beans is 154 liters. The pulp was approximately 15 - 18% of the wet bean and 25 - 30% of the total pulp weight.
The cocoa pulp is a substrate rich in nutrients, which can be used in industrial processes for by-product manufacture. Cocoa pulp mainly consists of water, sugars, acids, and pectin. Sugars in cocoa pulp are mainly sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Pectin, which gives cocoa pulp a thick consistency, presents at approximately 1% on fresh weight basis.
Citrate is the major organic acids, which inversely affected the pH of cocoa pulp. Other nonvolatile organic acids such as malic, tartaric, and oxalic acids are less than 0.1% in cocoa pulp.
Fermentation produces pulp liquid as much as 12-17% by weight of cocoa beans. Pulp liquid as a by-product during the fermentation of cocoa beans contains acetic acid, lactic acid, alcohol and sugar. Organic acids are formed from the fermentation of sugars contained in the pulp of cocoa beans.
Cocoa pulp
