Nondestructive determination of cocoa bean quality using FT-NIR spectroscopy

[Display omitted] •Cocoa quality attributes were estimated nondestructively using FT-NIR spectroscopy.•Quality determination of fermented and unfermented cocoa beans was possible.•Simple PLS regression produced accurate quantification of cocoa quality attributes.•The analysis was carried out within a minute compared to about 28h conventionally. A study was conducted to develop nondestructive calibration models to predict cocoa bean’s quality parameters, such as fermentation index, pH and total polyphenol content using Fourier transform (FT) near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Cocoa pods were stored for 0, 7, 14, and 21days as a pretreatment method and the effect on quality parameters were investigated. The beans from the stored pods were fermented by heap method. Fermentation index of all treatments ranged between 0.535 and 1.242, pH values between 4.26 and 6.13, and total polyphenol content varied between 6.48 and 15.58mgg−1. The samples were scanned in the NIR region of wavenumber 12,500–3600cm−1 for the spectral analysis. Results obtained from conventional quality analysis were correlated with spectra of respective treatment for calibration models development. Partial least square regression technique was used to develop the calibration models. Scanned spectra were preprocessed with vector normalization, multiplicative scatter correction, and first derivative techniques. The calibration models fitted the prediction of fermentation index and total polyphenols well (R2≥0.80), compared to that of pH (R2