Chocolate Quality Testing

Chocolate appears in many forms and as an ingredient in many confectionery and non-confectionary products. The December 2010 issue of Food Technology contains an overview of the chocolate confectionery market. This article focuses on the production and quality testing of chocolate.

Chocolate Production
Cacao trees produce pods throughout the year, but large harvests occur twice annually.

Workers harvest the pods by hand, hack open the shells, scoop out the pulp and seeds, and discard the husks. The…