Brad Draper, Hannah Firth, and Patricia Stauffer, Weber State University
Physical Sciences
It is widely known that cacao beans are one of the most abundant sources of naturally-occurring flavonoids on earth. However, chocolate products contain only a small percentage of the original flavonoids present in cacao beans, indicating that up to 95% of these flavonoids are lost during the manufacturing of chocolate. However, no one has identified the specific events or steps in chocolate preparation that destroys these flavonoids. We have measured the concentrations of a variety of nutritionally beneficial flavonoids at each step of the chocolate manufacturing process to identify the related extent of flavonoid losses. Following multiple-step extractions and sample preparations, we utilized chemical techniques of TLC, UV/VIS Spectroscopy, HPLC, and organoleptic testing to measure the levels of catechins and proanthocyanidins at each step of the chocolate making process.