ANALYSIS OF PHENOLIC AND FLAVONOID COMPOUNDS IN CHOCOLATES FORMULATED WITH SUBFERMENTED AND FERMENTED COCOA BEANS BLENDS

The main objective was to analyze the phenolic compounds content in the subfermented and fermented cocoa beans and in the chocolates produced with the blends of these two types. The fermentation process was done on a cocoa farm, located in the Ilhéus region, under two conditions: until 48 hours for subfermented samples (SF) and until 144 hours for completely fermented (CF). Subsequently, the cocoa beans were sun dried in barges for 7 days. The quality of cocoa beans after drying was evaluated by the cut test. The cocoa beans were submitted to roasting process at 120ºC/25 min (Oven, Lab.Companition, model OF-11E). The chocolates were formulated applying simplex planning, with two factors. The proportions levels were varied from 20% to 80%. A chocolate formulation with only CF nibs was produced as the control sample (CS). The base formulation for the production of chocolates was 66,3% cocoa content. Was determined the phenolic compounds and the total flavonoids in these samples. According the cut test, the SF was classify as nonstandard while the CF was classify as Type 1. The determination of phenolic compounds and total flavonoids revealed that the SF had 198.79 mg/g and 35.70 mg/g, respectively. While the CF had 80.88 mg/g and 15.23 mg/g, respectively. The highest concentrations of phenolic compounds in the chocolates were C1 (87.82 mg/g), with 80% SF and 20% CF, and C3 (85.04 mg/g), with 65% SF and 35% CF, in relation to the CS (57.68 mg/g). This was also observed in the analysis of total flavonoids, C1 (19.45 mg/g), C3 (17.40 mg/g) and CS (5.68 mg/g). Considering these results, the formulations of chocolates with higher amounts of SF had higher contents of phenolic and flavonoid compounds than the CS sample. After this study, the consumption of these chocolates with SF would provide health benefits.