Factors affecting instant properties of powdered cocoa beverages

The increasing number of small and medium scale manufacturers of powder cocoa beverages (PCBs) in Nigeria requires relevant technical data useful in designing new and value added products from cocoa powder. This paper reports a preliminary study carried out to determine how some physical and chemical factors relate to the instant properties of some commercial samples of PCBs produced in Nigeria. The levels of chemical component like moisture, fat and sugar in the PCBs varied from 0.8% to 3.6%, 2.0% to 10.4% and 52.4% to 90.5%, respectively. Physical properties like the bulk density, angle of repose, average particle size and uniformity index of the products varied from 0.49 to 0.81 g/cm3, 25.0° to 37.7°, 0.031 to 0.796 mm and 6.25 to 7.44, respectively. Instant properties such as wettability, dispersibility and solubility ranged from 10.7 to 21.7 s, 50.0% to 94.5% and 44.2% to 76.6%, respectively. These properties differed significantly (p < 0.05) among the 10 commercial samples of PCB studied. Sugar (sucrose) content of products had the most significant (p < 0.05) main effect on their instant properties followed by the fat content. Wetting time showed a significant (p < 0.05) negative linear correlation with sugar content. Agglomeration increased the average particle size, which correlated negatively with uniformity index. The instant properties of fine PCBs (average particle size <0.294 mm) were more predictable than the agglomerated samples.