PROCESSING COCOA BEANS INTO COCOA BUTTER AND COCOA MEAL
In April 2018 we made the technological experiment processing cocoa beans into cocoa butter cake and cocoa butter
RAW MATERIALS:
Cocoa beans
Crushed fermented cocoa beans
cocoa beans (moisture 6,7%)
fermented before being dried and crushed
After preparation of raw materials we actually got the crushed and milled cocoa which had the following characteristics:
- 40% of fat
- 10% hulls
- 6,5 moisture
- fracture 3*3 mm
The processing was done according to the BRONTO technological flow:
EXTRUDER E-250 – SCREW CONVEYOR SF-250 – OIL PRESS RP-500 - SCREW CONVEYOR SF-250 – OIL PRESS RP-500
Extruder had been used for preliminary product heating up prior the first oil pressing.
Cocoa Extrusion
Cocoa extrusion parameters
During the first 3 ... 5 minutes of extruder start, we fed the milled cocoa with the addition 20% of husks in order to accelerate the warming up process of extruder’s barrel.
After being heating up in the extruder to 100...110°C the cocoa mass was fed into the first oil press RP-500
Inside the mechanical oil press the cocoa mass had been pressed for 40 minutes with the temperature of 80...85°С
Cocoa cake out of the press
Cocoa oil cake
Since cocoa butter solidifies at a temperature below 40°C, we recommend filtering and deodorizing it right after the oil press.
Cocoa cake: after I pressing
Cocoa cake: after II pressing
The resulting sample of cocoa butter contains impurities of particulate matter (cocoa bean drop).
Cocoa butter
