APPLICATION OF GC/MS AND E-NOSE TECHNOLOGY FOR SPECIAL COCOA FLAVOR PROFILING IN MALAYSIAN DRIED COCOA BEANS
Authors: Mohd Zaini bin Nanyan, Nuraziawati binti Mohd Yazik, Albert Ling Sheng Chang, Zainal bin Baharum, Saiful Nizam bin Tajuddin, Muhammad Sharfi bin Najib, Nik Fatin Nabila Muhammad Nordin, Suhaimi Mohd Daud, Mohamed Yusof Ishak
Journal Issue: Malaysian Cocoa Journal, Volume 15(2)/2023
Keywords: Sensory, cocoa flavor, cocoa compound, microanalysis, chocolate, specialty flavor
Published On: 27/10/2023
Abstract
Cocoa aromatic compounds were important to develop premium chocolate products. The analysis of specialty cocoa flavor in cocoa beans is important and crucial for quality control of chocolate product since cocoa flavor are one of the major components in chocolate industry. Accurate microanalysis remains challenging, because it still in development. Conventionally, this can be achieved by combining multiple microanalysis techniques such as Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS), and normal sensory panel test. Investigation of simpler and quicker aromatic analytical information is anticipated. Objectives of this short communication, to focus on collection and classification of information several compound that contributed to special flavor such as flowery flavor using cocoa beans analysis and application of electronic nose (E-Nose) sensor technology to produce Malaysian Renaissance Chocolate. Dry cocoa beans sample used for analysis was taken from Cocoa Research and Development Center in Bagan Datuk, Perak. The entire sample was analyzed using E-Nose sensor technology. Two standard solutions represent linalool and 2-phenylethylesther acetic acids were used along the detection of existing volatile compounds in cocoa beans. The CBR (Case-based reasoning) intelligent classifier was used to show the result of percentage similarity between standard samples and cocoa samples. Both samples MCBC12 and MCBC15 when compared with linalool standard solution using this classifier, show a similarity percentage of 98.56% and 92.6% respectively. Meanwhile for 2-phenylethylesther acetic acids standard solution, the percentage of similarity obtained for both MCBC12 and MCBC15 samples is 97.39% and 96.65% respectively. As a conclusion, the analysis showed that each cocoa beans sample can be analyzed for special compounds using E-Nose sensor. In addition, 2-phenylethyl alcohol, linalool and benzene acetaldehyde contributed to the floral flavour. It was confirmed that cocoa beans from MCBC12 and MCBC15 contained flowery special notes using GCMS and E-Nose sensor. Within this analysis, we can develop a new unique identification and qualification strategy for accurate analysis special compounds in cocoa beans.