Design and testing of cocoa processing facilities for smallholders
In order to improve the quality of smallholders' cocoa beans a small-scale cocoa bean fermentor and dryer of 40 kg capacity of wet beans had been designed. Evaluation of processing equipments had been conducted in two steps. The first one was a laboratory testing done at Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI) and the second one was field application testing done in East Kalimantan, Irian Jaya and East Java provinces. The evaluation parameters were fermentation characteristics i.e. temperature and visual appearance of beans, drying characteristics i.e. temperature and kerosene consumption, quality of dried cocoa beans i.e. fermentation index, moisture content and pH value and organoleptic sensory test for the end products assessed by Cadbury Ltd. London. The results showed that the simple and inexpensive design of a small-scale processing equipments for smallholders generate normal fermentation process, slow rate drying process at air temperature between 42-68 °C, and produced low acid beans with good flavour characteristics. Kerosene consumption of drying to reach 7.5 percent moisture content was 7 litres, whereas combination process with sun-drying was 3 litres. The total drying time was 60 hours. Small-scale cocoa processing equipments could overcome the main problems of smallholders' cocoa beans by improving the quality, in term of good degree of fermentation, suitable moisture content according to SNI-01-2323-1992, and acceptable flavour characteristics according to buyer's requirements.
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | biblioteca |
| Published: |
Jul
|
| Subjects: | CACAO, PROCESAMIENTO, EXPLOTACION EN PEQUEÑA ESCALA, CALIDAD, |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|