Development and Performance Evaluation of a Cocoa Bean Sheller cum Winnower

Abstract

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is a commercial plantation crop in India. It is the main raw material in the production of chocolates, cosmetics, health drinks, pharmaceuticals etc. Shelling is one of the primary unit operation and critical step in the processing of chocolate. It affects the quality of the cocoa nibs in terms of flavor and purity. The present study focuses on the development of a cocoa bean sheller cum winnower and its performance evaluation in terms of percentage of cracked and uncracked beans, shelling efficiency, capacity, cleaning efficiency and energy requirement. Roasted cocoa beans were shelled using the developed cocoa bean sheller, which were further subjected to winnowing operation using cocoa bean winnower to separate the shells from the nibs. The shelling efficiency of the developed cocoa bean sheller and cleaning efficiency of the winnower were found to be 98 % and 90.38% respectively.