Enumeration and Identification of Bacterial Spores in Cocoa Powders

What is it about?

Bacterial spores may cause sterility issues in beverages if they survive thermal processing conditions and are able to germinate and grow out in the product. Bacterial spores are naturally present in cocoa powders and their enumeration is important for risk assessment purposes. Different methods applied worldwide will yield different results, thereby complicating interpretation of the outcomes. In addition, cocoa powder causes various complications in execution of analytical methods due to its hydrophobic character, dark colour and antimicrobial effect. In this paper, we describe the most suitable method for the enumeration of spores specifically from cocoa powders, which was tested in eight separate laboratories. We show that the majority (94%) of sporeforming species in cocoa belong to Bacillus species and that levels of highly heat resistant spores in cocoa are very low (<10 cfu/g). This work supports the global cocoa industry on enumeration of spores and spoilage risk assessment.

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