Learning Objective: To be informed on the interest in raw cocoa beans

A discussion on "raw" chocolate

A few years ago, I got the following questions from one of my students concerning "raw" chocolate products. I thought the questions were indicative of the confusion that exists so I added them to this existing lecture. I've put my personal opinions in Red. The student's name has been omitted to protect the confused :o)

Can bean-to-bar chocolate makers really call their chocolate "RAW" when the cocoa beans have been fermented and roasted at temperatures way above 115° F?
No, as fermentation itself can bring temperatures above the raw-food movement guidelines.

Can you REALLY make good quality chocolate with cocoa beans fermented and roasted at 115°F or less? (Doesn't seem possible. . .high germination risk and poor, bitter flavor plus not optimizing the cocoa beans flavor; do farmers report fermentation temp ranges when cocoa beans are sold?) 
Not really, the under or non-fermented beans end up producing a different cocoa product not chocolate and certainly not with the flavor and texture attributes we've come to associate with fine chocolate.

Is this "RAW" label just another marketing spin? 
You be the judge of that.

Yes, I agree once chocolate is in bar form, you can make a partially "RAW" product...control tempering temp not to exceed 115°F plus all other fresh, organic ingredients. But the main ingredient, chocolate, technically is not and can't possibly be RAW. 
Correct.

Unless I'm missing something, I feel this is incorrect marketing to label ANY product made with chocolate "RAW". 
I agree and so do many others.

This link is an example of (I'm guessing) a bean-to-bar maker. They are purchasing "cacao beans" and make un-roasted chocolate. The term "cacao". . .is it misused? 
The term "cacao" is applied to beans before they are fermented and dried so that is correct. They are calling it a "cacao confection" in the description.

Or are they really purchasing unfermented cacao beans?
They could be buying unfermented cacao beans – but who would want to eat this as the taste, according to Steve De Vries, is pretty much like bitter gray mud.

How are they achieving a chocolate flavor if cocoa beans are not fermented and roasted 
From my experience, they won't be able to achieve a true chocolate flavor with non-roasted beans.

....very confused! I really must me missing something! :) Please advise!
I am hoping that someday there will be real transparency when it comes to claiming a chocolate product is raw but its a big problem until then.

So let's ask ourselves the following questions:

What criteria is the basis for determining if a product can be sold and marketed as "raw" chocolate and more importantly does the processing (or lack thereof) follow accepted food safety guidelines?

There is NO criteria for determining whether a chocolate or cocoa is "raw" so everyone marketing raw chocolate or cocoa products are doing so from their own personal definition of what "raw" is. See the report later in this lecture on one graduate's search to get answers from her suppliers.

Is raw chocolate safe? Personally, I am very, very concerned about how "raw" cocoa beans are handled.

Since the cacao beans are grown on family farms, there is no point between harvest to bagging where they are not exposed to pathogens from living creatures or humans. That is just a fact of life on a farm. Even during normal fermentation where the beans can achieve a temperature as high as 125°F (51.7°C ) that temperature is still not high enough to kill all the bacteria.

Here is a picture we took on our Master Chocolate Program in Ecuador – the following is at a collection center and their driveway where coffee (yesterday it was cacao) is being dried in the sun. Note on the far right of the picture are three doors to the latrine. Note how wet the slope is from the latrine to the coffee. That is "moisture" from the latrines draining onto the coffee. They knew they had visitors but made no effort to clean that up – so that tells you this is business as usual. Also, periodically trucks would travel down the driveway from the warehouses in the back over whatever crop was lying in the road to dry. You can see the tire tracks in the coffee.

So a chocolate manufacturer or artisan chocolate maker must assume that the bagged beans arriving at their loading dock are contaminated with some, if not all, of the following: Salmonella, Listeria, E. Coli and Staphylococcus. If that thought doesn't scare you, it should. Chocolate manufacturers use steam cleaning and/or the roasting process to ensure they have 99 to 100% kill of all pathogens.

In the production of "raw" cocoa or chocolate, the temperatures cannot exceed the "raw" food guidelines. Wikipedia reports those guidelines as 40 °C (104 °F) to 46 °C (115 °F). Therefore, at no point in the processes are the beans subjected to enough heat for enough time to kill all the bacteria present on the shell or nibs.

Knowing all of the above, I think I'd personally stay away from building a business based on "raw" chocolate. There are more than enough healthy aspects of dark chocolate in its safely processed form to build a business focused on health.

I highly recommend you read this White Paper: Raw Chocolate: Risks and Recommendations from the National Confectioners Association, published in March, 2011. NOTE: I found this paper wouldn't open for me in Firefox or Internet Explorer (I keep getting an error message that the file was damaged) but it did open perfectly in Google Chrome browser. Since browsers are free, it doesn't hurt to have more than one downloaded to your computer for just such a problem.

Here is a 2012 example of the issue: Cacoa Nibs from FunFresh Foods are being recalled on concerns of potential E.coli contamination, discovered during testing of finished products. The voluntary recall applies to about 500 six-ounce packs distributed between April 12 and April 17. Full Story

Understanding the term "raw chocolate"

You'll see a number of companies that say they sell raw chocolate. This is a "buyer beware" market, as the temperatures reached in both fermentation and roasting can easily go over the limits set by the raw foodist's dietary standards: 92º-118ºF (33°- 48°C).

As well, at those low temperatures, the flavors we associate with chocolate are not developed. The resulting "raw" chocolate may be edible but will not look or taste at all like chocolate because it's the fermentation and roasting processes that bring out the "chocolate" taste. Also, you need to buy from a very reputable company as the microbes in the cocoa bean may not be killed at those low temperatures, raising the risk of salmonella and other foodborne illnesses.

The following video is basically a promotion for Big Tree Farms and came with the title: "An honest explanation of mislabelling in the US/EU Raw Cacao market and a discussion of the breakthrough new system Big Tree Farms has created to produce a truly cold-processed Cacao Butter and Cacao Powder." I thought it was worth including in the curriculum because the problems his company has supposedly overcome with respect to temperature in the processing of cocoa beans is a good example of the problems facing the "raw" chocolate industry.

Scott at DallasFoodOrg weighs in on "Whole Bean" chocolate. What is whole bean chocolate? Its where the roasted bean with the cacao shell left on is ground into a chocolate. This is an example of a category of chocolate that has always been considered "substandard" or adulterated chocolate - for very good reason.

I caution all our students to be very careful with your claims and experiments outside of normal best practices. Since we are creating a food product that people will ingest, please be very, very sure your products are food safe.

An Ecole Chocolat Graduate's research on raw cocoa paste and products

Ecole Chocolat Note: In 2010, EC Graduate Shanti Devi was generous in sharing her research into the feasibility of making raw chocolate products. You'll see questions and comments from Pam that started her on her research to better understand raw cocoa.

Dear Pam – Thank you for your comments, questions and suggestions. They have prodded me to get more recent info from my two suppliers and the web as well clarified for me some of my own concerns and beliefs about rawness, fermentation and exact temperatures used in the processing of the raw chocolate, especially with respect to setting up the business and creating a marketing plan. Here is an overview of my research prodded by your questions.Shanti Devi

Pam asked: What exactly is "raw" chocolate from your supplier's point of view?

What temperatures different plant foods can withstand and still have enzymes and nutrients intact is one of the questions that is key and I have found through my research that there is not a single figure for all plants as they are grown in different temperatures. For example, agave might withstand temperatures over 150°F while it is living in the desert under the beating sun, whereas cool crop lettuce can't handle 80°F in the sun.

I've been exploring this question for some time and there are a wide variety of answers and some controversy in the raw community around this issue. You might be aware that there are quite a few branches of the raw world that have differing philosophies about the right foods to eat, and the highest and lowest temperatures that are considered raw, and many other facets of the raw diet and lifestyle are up for debate, as is often the case with theories that are different than the norm.

Even though the raw natural hygiene movement has been around since the late 1800's, the most recent expansion of research and interest in raw foods has brought many differing theories, new techniques, machines and ingredients, plus it's created many more questions than it has provided answers. I've found that I have had to rely first of all on my body's response to things I ingest, in conjunction with common sense and combine that with extensive research into how things are processed, to help me make decisions about what works for me. From raw message boards, retreats and classes I have experienced, I know the majority of people out there who are trying to figure out what is raw are taking a similar approach to it. It's a small number who take an extremist approach.

With all that in mind as I planned for the products that I will be offering to the raw community, I've also tried to create recipes that are tasty to everyone, but that stay within reasonable boundaries for the widely diverse raw community. In my tasting group of about 10 people, only three are raw foodists, yet all the others have switched over to buying my raw chocolate candy exclusively, based on the taste, melting point and how they feel after eating it. So, although I am trying to make sure all my ingredients fit somewhere in the branches of the raw tree, I feel my products will have a much wider market than that and I know some of the more extreme raw foodists will never consider any raw chocolate a good choice for them.

Pam asked: Can you find a stable source of "raw" chocolate?

I can see now that I should have fleshed out some of my answers more. With this raw chocolate distinction being a fairly recent phenomenon, it seems there's a lot of experimentation and there are a lot of people looking for ways to create it and to capitalize on the demand. Even Mars and Hershey's are studying how to keep more of the healing properties of chocolate; for example, Mars has introduced the new Coco Via line, claiming the cacao is processed minimally to keep the antioxidants and flavanols intact, and Hershey's has the antioxidant line, but nobody wants to reveal their secrets about how they are achieving this goal.

The book "Naked Chocolate" by David Wolfe began popularizing raw cacao in the raw food community in March of 2005 when raw beans and nibs were all that was available. I've been researching, and working with creating raw chocolate candy for just about a year now, because that is when the raw cacao powder and butter became readily available. I got my powder and butter from Natures First Law (now Sunfood Nutrition), a company that David Wolfe is associated with. I feel he is a person of integrity and vision as well as someone who really investigates things fully and scientifically. I've been buying from them and been very happy with what I get from them.

I met David recently in Chicago and had a talk with him about my dream and asked if he feels confident in his supply of cacao, as many people are creating raw chocolate candies and other treats using his cacao products and I intend to sell them globally. He told me he will always have plenty and that he is starting his own farm on Kauai, Hawaii.

From what I have been able to piece together through researching this is that there is one main importer of raw chocolate that follows proprietary processes for fermentation, pressing and even conching to keep as many of the nutrients intact and be considered raw. It is Essential Living Foods and they supply all of the others that offer raw chocolate, including Sunfood Nutrition, although it sounds like they have more than a supplier, distributor relationship. Sunfood Nutrition has told me directly that Essential Living Foods is their supplier.

Shanti continues: I happened upon Essential Living Foods on the web while doing a periodic search for raw cacao about seven months ago, and although they indicated they sell by the pallet, I filled out an email form where they asked a lot of questions about my mission statement and business practices and philosophies. They called me and said that even though I could not yet meet the minimums for manufacturer, they liked my mission statement and would allow me to set up a manufacturer's account. I have been buying from them and have been very happy with their products. I use either Sunfood Nutrition or Essential Living Foods, depending on what other products I need as they each have some of the other ingredients that I use.

I have asked Essential Living Foods many questions about the availability of their raw cacao products and they have told me that I do not have to worry about supply, no matter how big I get. I can order by the shipping container full if I want.

I do realize however that cacao is a crop and that means weather, politics and pests as well as many other things can affect the supply chain, so I am a little nervous that I only have one supplier. It's an even worse situation than the organic chocolate situation. I can only move forward with my vision and if I get the funding I am planning on, I'll purchase a large enough supply to hold me over through any crisis that might happen. Like Melanie, I also have the eventual dream of having my own cacao farm in Hawaii and so far in life, all of my dreams have come true once I get going on them. I just have to get my health and stamina back and then nothing can stop me.

Pam wrote: Just because the beans are not roasted doesn't mean that they are "raw" if the heat during fermentation has exceeded the heat limit imposed by the raw community.

I have been asking these kinds of questions about the temperatures during not only the fermentation process but all the processes for almost a year, as I had read all about fermentation as it is done in the traditional cocoa world and wondered how they were getting the chocolate taste to develop without the high temps associated with fermentation. I was first told that the process that David had developed with the farmers was proprietary but that the temperatures did not ever exceed 110 F. Like I said earlier, I feel that David is a person of integrity so I trusted this and could understand the company not wanting to tell their secrets, as the demand for the product was rising.

A year ago there were only a few vendors offering raw cacao and it was rumored that they all got it from the same source. I did eventually try some other vendors through a friend who had ordered two different batches of raw nib he'd found on the web. Both had a slightly vinegary taste and smell and had a subtle whitish powdery film on the nibs. To me it was not edible, let alone something I would want to make yummy healthy chocolates with.

A month or so later, I read an article written by David Wolfe saying that there were some nibs and beans being offered on the web that were using the same practices that roasted cocoa uses, just omitting the roasting, and that he felt this chocolate is unsafe since there are no practices in place that keep the temperature and microbe count down during the fermentation process and it is an underlying assumption that the cocoa will be roasted and any bacteria will be killed in the heat. These vendors only offer beans and nibs and usually at a lower price than everyone else is offering raw chocolate. I continued doing periodic searches for raw cacao, just to see what was happening with it.

As with any new or pioneering field or endeavor, experimentation and testing have to be done to figure out new ways to achieve the new goals. After hearing a recent presentation from David Wolfe where he mentioned that Sunfood Nutrition's chocolate is very lightly fermented, I called them again and asked what that means and how they achieve it. They said that David and the farmers that he has been working with have been developing ways to get just enough fermentation that brings the chocolate flavor out, but at the lowest possible temperature, with the lowest microbe count. I have been told 110 degrees is the high temp by Sunfood Nutrition and 118 degrees is the high temp by Essential Living Foods. I am happy with either of these temps for the raw community I am trying to reach, although I would still like to see some test result showing bio-available nutrients and ORAC scores to compare them with traditional chocolate.

Pam wrote: You need to be careful that they have documentation on the fermentation process.

I just talked to Essential Living Foods again today and asked if they could tell me more about the fermentation process. They said they control the temperature at all times, keeping a thermometer in the pile and that they use much smaller batches of beans than what is used in traditional fermentation practices. That alone helps them to control the temperatures, as well as the practice of turning the pile and moving the beans from the inside of the pile to the outside, like they do in a compost pile to maintain optimal temperatures to break down things and keep the things alive that are doing the breaking down.

I have asked them for more definitive info and am awaiting documentation regarding ORAC levels of the different raw cacao products, if there is indeed formal documentation available at this point. I'm hoping to go down to the farm and see the whole process. They are in the process of seeing if that can be arranged.

I received the ELF Cacao Paste Brochure from them (see Resources and References). These were what they sent me when I asked for any documentation or test results that they have on the raw cacao paste and company info for me to use in a presentation to investors.

Is there some kind of standard documentation about the fermentation process that is commonly available or required by some agency that is supposed to be available to buyers in the traditional chocolate world?

Pam replies: An example of an African buyer's standard for fine flavor beans simply states that the beans be: well fermented, thoroughly dry (not more than 8% moisture content), clean, free from all commercial defects and having not more than 95 beans weight of 100 grams. Most chocolate makers test to make sure their cocoa bean shipment has no more than 15% under- or non-fermented beans.

Resources and References

ELF Cacao Paste