Occurrence of ochratoxin A in cocoa by-products and determination of its reduction during chocolate manufacture

► There was a widespread and low contamination of cocoa products by ochratoxin A. ► Tendency of higher amounts of ochratoxin A with higher cocoa solids content. ► Shelling was the main process responsible for OTA reduction in chocolate processing. ► About 93.6% of the ochratoxin A was reduced during the chocolate making process. This work reports an investigation carried out to assess the natural occurrence of ochratoxin A in 168 samples from different fractions obtained during the technological processing of cocoa (shell, nibs, liquor, butter, cake and cocoa powder) and the reduction of ochratoxin A during chocolate manufacture. Ochratoxin A analyses were performed with immunoaffinity columns and detection by high performance liquid chromatography. Concerning the natural ochratoxin A contamination in cocoa by-products, the highest levels of ochratoxin A were found in the shell, cocoa powder and cocoa cake. The cocoa butter was the least contaminated, showing that ochratoxin A seems to remain in the defatted cocoa solids. Under the technological conditions applied during the manufacture of chocolate in this study and the level of contamination present in the cocoa beans, this experiment demonstrated that 93.6% of ochratoxin A present in the beans was reduced during the chocolate producing.