Inactivation of Salmonella during cocoa roasting and chocolate conching

The high heat resistance of Salmonella in foods with low water activity raises particular issues for food safety, especially chocolate, where outbreak investigations indicate that few colony-forming units are necessary to cause salmonellosis. This study evaluated the efficiency of cocoa roasting and milk chocolate conching in the inactivation of Salmonella 5-strain suspension. Thermal resistance of Salmonella was greater in nibs compared to cocoa beans upon exposure at 110 to 130 °C. The D-values in nibs were 1.8, 2.2 and 1.5-fold higher than those calculated for cocoa beans at 110, 120 and 130 °C. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the matrices only at 140 °C. Since in the conching of milk chocolate the inactivation curves showed rapid death in the first 180 min followed by a lower inactivation rate, and two D-values were calculated. For the first time interval (0–180 min) the D-values were 216.87, 102.27 and 50.99 min at 50, 60 and 70 °C, respectively. The other D-values were determined from the second time interval (180–1440 min), 1076.76 min at 50 °C, 481.94 min at 60 °C and 702.23 min at 70 °C. The results demonstrated that the type of matrix, the process temperature and the initial count influenced the Salmonella resistance.