Influence of roasting conditions on fatty acid composition and oxidative changes of cocoa butter extracted from cocoa bean of Forastero variety cultivated in Togo

article i nfo Cocoa butter is responsible for physico-chemical, rheological and sensory properties of chocolates. Forastero cocoa beans are rich in cocoa butter. Roasting of cocoa beans is an essential step of their processing, giving rise tomany desirabletransformations. Onthe other hand,itcauses changes incertainvaluableingredients including also cocoa butter.Thisarticlestudies the influenceof roasting conditions,i.e. temperature, humidity and flow ve- locity of roasting air, on the fatty acid composition, peroxide value and content of conjugated dienes and trienes incocoa butterextracted fromcocoa beans. Generally, inmost casesroasting did notincrease theperoxide value. Inthe constantconditions duetoobtainedresultsofPV,CD andCT valuesitisrecommendedto roastcocoabeans at the temperature of 150 °C, 1 m/s air velocity and 5% relative humidity. In the variable conditions lower values of PV, CD and CT were achieved when cocoa beans were roasted in variants with changing temperature from 150 °C to 135 °C or with changing air velocity from 1 to 0.5 m/s. Generally, the roasting process substantially did not change the content of each fatty acid, regardless of the applied conditions.