CLARIFICATION OF COCOA HONEY WITH PECTINASES AND BENTONITE

Cocoa honey (MC) is a mucilaginous pulp derived from cocoa (Theobroma cacao) and its application is basically for jelly manufacture (due to its pectin content). However, in order to obtain a distilled beverage, it is necessary to clarify it, meaning, to hydrolyze the pectin obtaining a more translucent MC, since pectin can induce the formation of precipitates in distillation. In this work, the objective was to clarify the MC by means of enzymatic hydrolysis followed by complexation with a clarifying agent (bentonite). Thus, seven factors were investigated by factorial design: the proportion of commercial (Pectinex®, Novozymes) pectin lyase (SMASH XXL®), polyglacturanase (Ultra SP-L®) and pectin methylesterase (Yieldmash Extra®) (PEC, v:v:v), temperature (Tenz, °C), agitation (rpm) and time (tenz, min) to the enzymatic reaction, bentonite concentration (CLA, g/mL), contact time with bentonite (tcla, min) and final centrifugation (Cent, g). By means of the main effects analysis (85 % of confidence) over the responses: density (ρ, g/mL), determined with pycnometer, and clarification (abs), determined by the absorbance at 600 nm, two conditions were selected for complementary tests (triplicates). A few factors were fixed: rpm = 75 rpm, tenz and tcla = 30 min and CLA = 1.0 g / mL and the first condition (E.1) was performed at: PEC = 4:1:0; Tenz = 55 °C and Cent = 7,000 g and the second (E.2) at: 0:3:2; 25 °C and 4,000 g, respectively. According to the results, E.2 presented the lowest values of abs (0.114 ± 0.037) and ρ (1.055 ± 0.001 g/mL) in comparison to the untreated MC (abs = 1,134 and ρ = 1,065 g/mL). E.1 resulted in an abs around 41 % higher than E.2 and almost no reduction in ρ. Thus, the clarification of MC was possible to achieve and it is possible to proceed with the studies.