Chiral markers: a useful tool for the quality control of cocoa beans and related products.

Cocoa beans and derived products contain many chiral compounds, such as amino acids, organic acids, flavan-3-ols and volatile compounds. The detection of the enantiomeric composition of the named chiral substances can add many information to the knowledge about product characteristics and technological processes as fermentation and roasting. D-amino acids can be related to bacterial fermentation in unroasted beans, while in roasted products, as cocoa powder and chocolate, they represent a marker of heating treatment, together with the non natural flavan-3-ol (-)-catechin. Only few studies aimed to find chiral markers of cocoa quality and processing are reported, so this particular promising aspect of cocoa characterization would require a major development.