Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction Fermentation, drying and roasting are the most infuential process in chocolate favor formation. 1,2 During fermentation a number of volatile precursors are developed due to the numerous enzymatic and chemical reactions convert to simple those complex compounds; such as: oligo and polysaccharides to mono saccharides or reducing sugars; and proteins to peptides and free amino acids. 3 Studies have shown that unfermented cocoa beans do not contain the volatile precursors that are present in the fermented cocoa beans. 4 On drying, the formation of these precursors it continues, and this compounds start to transforming into the volatiles that provide the chocolate favor, that will be consolidate during the roasting process. 5 Roasting is necessary to develop favor, color, and volatile compounds of the chocolate. In roasting, these precursors participate in a series of biochemical reactions that occur inside of the grain, producing the characteristic chocolate “favor”. 6‒11 Among them are included reactions of caramelization, “Maillard” and oxidation of polyphenols. As Davies & Labuzza, 12 pointed out, the most important infuence the Maillard reaction has on confectionery is the formation color, volatile and taste, mainly during processing, e.g. the favor and color of many chocolate, candy and combination baked products. Thus, the Maillard reaction gives rise to the colored and the favored compounds which are part of the food acceptance. 13 The favors produced during roasting come from a combination of 400- 500 compounds. 14 These compounds include aldehydes and pyrazines, which are formed during roasting, through the Maillard reaction and Strecker degradation of amino acids and sugars. 15 Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its desirable favor. The reactive carbonyl group of the sugar reacts with the nucleophilic amino group of the amino acid, and forms a complex mixture of different low molecular weight characterized molecules responsible for a range of odors and favors. This process is accelerated in an alkaline environment, as the amino groups (RNH3+) are deprotonated and, hence, have an increased nucleophilicity. The type of the amino acid determines the resulting favour. 16 Also the sugar choice has been shown to strongly infuence the total amount of favor formed, cited by Davies & Labuzza. 12 The volatile fraction of the Venezuela Criollo type cocoa as a function of the postharvest treatment has been studied by Portillo et al., 17 and Álvarez C et al., 18 Both authors have emphasized the importance of the fermentation and drying on the fnal sensorial quality of the cocoa. Moreover, results are corroborating that the postharvest handling (fermentation and drying) contributes signifcantly in the expression and differentiation of volatile intensities among types of cocoa. 19‒21 In Venezuela the postharvest handling is artesian, and is varying from a locality to another one. This factor added to the genetic contribution of the favor precursor of the varieties of cocoa predicts differences in the fnal volatile profle of the cocoa or chocolate. This volatile composition neither is nor well studied in Venezuelan cocoa. The aim of this study was to identify by Gas Chromatography the volatile fraction of cocoa beans fermented, dried and roasted from a selected material of Criollo cacao trees of Venezuela. J Nutr Health Food Eng. 2016;5(4):659‒666. 659 © 2016 Álvarez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Identifcation of the volatile compounds in the roasting Venezuela criollo cocoa beans by gas chromatography-spectrometry mass Volume 5 Issue 4 - 2016 Clímaco Álvarez, 1 Elevina Pérez, 2 Mary del Carmen Lares, 3 Reanud Boulanger, 4 Fabrice Davrieux, 4 Sophie Assemat, 4 Emile Cros 4 1 Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrícolas (INIA), Venezuela 2 Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela,Venezuela 3 Escuela de Nutrición y Dietética, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Central de Venezuela,Venezuela 4 CIRAD, UMR Quali Sud, France Correspondence: Clímaco Orlando Álvarez Fernández, Tapipa, Miranda state,Venezuela, Tel +58.02346621219, Email Received: October 26, 2016 | Published: December 06, 2016 Abstract An identifcation of the volatile compounds from the fermented dried and toasted (at 20°C, 25minutes) cocoa beans from a population of selected cocoa, were studied. The selected material “Criollo” (205 trees) was gathered from the plantation “El Pedregal” located at the south of Maracaibo Lake, Rio Frio “ Mérida state, Venezuela. The volatile fraction was extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometer (SPME/ MS). The goal of the researching was the quantifcation of the content of organic volatile compounds developed by effect of the cocoa roasting. Volatile identifcation was performed comparing the retention indices and mass spectra obtained with those of the compounds existing as reference in the bank of the “Wiley Mass Spectral Data”. Sixty-nine volatile compounds that were grouped into 12 chemical families were identifed. Aldehydes, alcohols, acids, hydrocarbons, pyrazines and diverse compounds, were the compounds prevalent in the volatile fraction of roasted cocoa. As conclusion this research permits the establishment of the identifcation and sensory quality of the Venezuelan creole cocoa, is of consensus that the volatile profle of the Venezuelan cocoa, which is highly appreciated by the chocolatiers of the world, has been fewer studied. It is also observed that there is an effect of post-harvest treatment (fermentation, drying) and roasted on the formation of favor compounds in the fraction of roasted cacao. The results of these studies also show that SPME has a signifcant advantage over more traditional methods for analysis of volatile compounds in the cocoa beans post-harvest process: no fermented, fermented, dried and roasted. Keywords: cocoa, gas chromatography, mass, retention indices Journal of Nutritional Health & Food Engineering Research Article Open Access