Beyond chocolate: Redesigning cocoa fermentation for enhanced recovery and modulation of bioactive compounds

Standardizing cocoa fermentation is essential for enhancing global chocolate production. Recently, the biochemistry and microbiology of cocoa processing have been explored, with a particular focus on spontaneous fermentation. Cocoa bean fermentation is a traditional spontaneous process that prioritizes flavor over bioactivity, thereby limiting the bioactive potential of cocoa-derived products. As a result, valuable bioactive compounds with potential nutraceutical interest (such as polyphenols, methylxanthines, and vitamins) are often lost or degraded during current processing practices. This review highlights the global impact of cocoa fermentation on bioactive compound modulation and transformation and examines the challenges of developing novel fermentation processes that prioritize these compounds over flavor. By shifting the current cocoa paradigm (i.e., Theobroma cacao is solely used to produce chocolate), this review addresses the challenges of rationally preserving and valorizing high-value bioactive associated with cocoa fermentations, contributing to discussions around the current challenges facing the cocoa sector, and expanding opportunities in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries.