Cocoa bean shell waste as potential raw material for dietary fiber powder

Purpose The shell of cocoa beans is one of the cocoa industry byproducts that currently still become waste. Through this research, utilization of cocoa bean shell for producing alkalized fiber powder was observed. The aim of the study is producing fiber powder from the shell of cocoa beans. Methods The shell of cocoa beans was obtained from the chocolate industry and directly used without any pretreatment. The shell of cocoa beans was alkalized to adjust the pH and remove the possible heavy metal. At the end of the alkalization process, the solid material was measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Later, the solid material was crushed into 30-200 mesh. The possibility for this powder to substitute other fiber powders (oat and whole wheat) was tested by texture profile analysis (TPA) and panelists test for cookies produced of those powders. Results The experiment shows that an increase in temperature will cause the product's color to be more red and yellow, lowering the powder yield, and also increase the coarse fiber content of the alkalized-product. Conclusions Powder size analysis, TPA, and acceptance test show that the produced cocoa powder can be utilized for a substitution or mixing flour as there is no significant difference observed among them. It contains rich fiber that is important for dietary food.