Effect of Reconditioning of Discrepant Cocoa on the Quality of Cocoa Beans

Reconditioning of cocoa beans which involves re-drying, sieving, sorting and re-bagging of cocoa beans is a very important process in the cocoa industry. The study was conducted to identify the fungi on and in cocoa beans before and after reconditioning. Defective cocoa beans namely, Damp, Wet, Not Thoroughly Dried (NTD), Mouldy beans and Good beans (control) were placed on water agar and Potato Dextrose Agar before and after reconditioning to isolate and identify external and internal fungi following the cut test technique. The result showed that a total of ten fungal species were isolated from the types of defective beans before and after reconditioning. These were; Absidia spp. Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Fusarium spp, Mucor spp, Paecilomyces spp, Penicillium spp, Rhizopus spp. Syncephalastrum spp. and Trichoderma spp. However, after reconditioning the number of fungi reduced to five (5) that is Absidia spp, Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Mucor spp and Rhizopus spp in the various treatments. The cut test also showed five internal fungi in the various treatments and these were Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Mucor spp, Penicillium spp, and Rhizopus spp, High moisture content of the cocoa beans recorded before reconditioning was reduced to the acceptable safe moisture content of 7.5% or less after reconditionig. The FFA levels for the healthy beans (control) (0.77%), wet beans (1.64%), Damp beans (1.43%) and NTD beans (1.65%) were significantly lower (p<0.05) than the FFA levels in the Mouldy beans (21.9%) after reconditioning. It can be concluded that reconditioning was capable of salvaging NTD beans, Damp beans and Wet beans with high moisture content from further spoilage.