Effect of Pectin Lyase Enzyme on Fermentation and Drying of Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.): An Alternative to Improve Raw Material in the Industry of Chocolate

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao), in all its presentations, is consumed all over the world and is one of the main drivers of the economic in several countries. The world’s Cocoa tendency is focused on developing special beans. This category is subject to postharvest processes of utmost importance such as the fermentation and dry, which are currently carried out with traditional and poorly effective devices, which need to be improved to obtain a high quality product. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the pectin lyase enzyme (E.C.4.2.2.10) on the postharvest cocoa process. We evaluated the enzyme dosage (1.0% and 0.5%) in fermentation and its effect on the variables temperature, acidity and drying time by convection at 60°C. The Pectin lyase activity during fermentation does not cause a significant effect on the variables of temperature and acidity;however, the drying process time required to achieve 7.0% moisture was reduced. The enzyme dosage of 1.0% was the best result, the amount of exudate obtained (115 ml) during fermentation and the best degree of fermentation (77% ± 3.8) were increased and further shows a change in porosity facilitating the scale surface and internal moisture diffusion. The drying rate (Nw) expressed in kgwater/m2 * min was determined based on the empirical model of Newton, where the higher speed was obtained during the falling period. In conclusion, enzyme dosage 1% was the best concentration evaluated because weaken grain husk, which allowed an adequate fermentation,and subsequent time drying reduction until 10.8 h.

Microencapsulation of Banana Passion Fruit (<i>Passiflora tripartita Var. Mollissima</i>): A New Alternative as a Natural Additive as Antioxidant

Banana passion fruit (P. tripartita var. Mollissima) is one of the most promising tropical fruits giving its antioxidant activity (AOA) to replace synthetic additives. Despite this property, there are no studies about the metabolites responsible for its biological function or proposals for the application of technologies, such as microencapsulation by spray drying, to improve its properties and ease its incorporation in several food matrices. The aim of this study is to microencapsulate the pulp of banana passion fruit with several mixtures of encapsulants and identify which one of these mixtures is better to preserve its AOA. The antioxidant activity values for the banana passion fruit pulp were as follows: DPPH: 6630.2 ± 91 μMtrolox/100g;ABTS: 18764.3 ± 270.4 μMtrolox/100g;FRAP: 1703.6± 938.2 mgAA/100g, ORAC: 8105.4 ± 424.2 μmol TEAC/100g of sample;Total phenols: 8862.2 ± 451.4 gallic ac. mg/100g. The concentrations of the bioactive compounds expressed in mg of gallic acid per 100 g of the pulp on a dry base were 13.9 ± 0.004;5.9 ± 0.001 and 126.3 ± 0.004 for caffeic, p-coumaric and ferulic acids, respectively. The best shelf-life followed by ABTS in eight assays was between 28.8 and 31.5 weeks using maltodextrin and modified starch, MD:MS (1/4:3/4) and MD:MS (0:1), respectively. In conclusion, ABTS is the best method to measure the AOA in banana passion fruit because it correlated with the phenolic compounds better than DPPH and FRAP methods. Additionally, two options were found to protect the AOA and to extent the shelf-life of the passion fruit by spray-drying, with mixtures of encapsulants widely used in the food industry.