“Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), the source of cocoa, is an economically important tropical crop. One problem with the premium cacao market is contamination with off-types adulterating raw premium material. Accurate determination of the genetic identity of single cacao beans is essential for ensuring cocoa authentication,” said Dapeng Zhang from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his colleagues from the Nanjing Agricultural University in China and the University of the West Indies in the Trinidad and Tobago, who published their results in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
“Lower-quality cacao beans often get mixed in with premium varieties on their way to becoming chocolate bars, truffles, sauces and liqueurs.”
“But the stakes for policing the chocolate industry are high. It’s a multi-billion dollar global enterprise, and in some places, it’s as much art as business. There’s also a conservation angle to knowing whether products are truly what confectioners claim them to be.”
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