They point to a quality cocoa

Five years ago, among students, teachers and researchers of the food engineering career, they began to talk about cocoa from the Austro. They, for example, knew that there was good cocoa in Azuay and Cañar, however, the fame was carried by other provinces.

On the eve of what would become a mega project, it was identified that there was a need to improve production processes and position an identity that would give recognition to Azuayo and Cañarese cocoa.

It was then that it was decided to expand the investigation, and in 2017, researchers and teachers Miriam Briones and Marco Lazo directed a project that consisted of obtaining cocoa from two areas: Putucay, in Azuay, and Zhucay, in Cañar, to characterize it and , above all, to work on fermentation.

Fermentation is key in cocoa processing because the sensory concept of the product depends on it: texture, flavor and smell. For the same reason, in the first stage of the project they began to look for better processes for fermentation.

“We started working on a mix of banana and passion fruit fruits. And there began the project to obtain a fermentation with alternative, natural pulps”, explained Marco Lazo to the newspaper El Mercurio.

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The interest in the project was such that several undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral theses were generated around it. To this was added the Department of Liaison with the Society of the UDA, with which the project entered a second phase.

Process improvement

In the second stage, the UDA signed an agreement with Elecaustro to improve the production of chocolate by Zhucay producers. For this, the food engineering career shared their knowledge on good manufacturing practices, product quality and the processes in general to obtain chocolate.

As part of the agreement, explained María Fernanda Rosales, a member of the project, Elecaustro gave equipment to process cocoa and chocolate on loan, which not only served to train Zhucay producers, but also helped other people to improve their processes.

With all these antecedents, the first chocolate bars were already produced, which were the test product of the work done between the producers and the University of Azuay.

towards quality

And, while the processes for making chocolate continue to improve, researchers and teachers María Alicia Peña and Rodrigo Caroca have begun the third phase of the project, which consists of finding a starter culture that standardizes the quality of cocoa.

To do this, the researchers are based on the studies that were already carried out in the first stage of the project.

“What we want is to already have the starter culture and take it to the different linking projects. The moment we have a standard, we can replicate it in the different communities and obtain value-added chocolates,” Peña told El Mercurio newspaper.

It is expected that until the end of the year, the researchers will have the preliminary results so that the cocoa from the Austro is considered not only in Ecuador, but in the world.