BY-PRODUCTS OF THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY
Of Cacao Butter.--
It is the best and most natural _Pomatum_ for Ladies to
_clear_ and _plump_ the Skin when it is _dry, rough_, or
_shrivel'd_, without making it appear either _fat_ or
_shining_. The _Spanish Women_ at _Mexico_ use it very much,
and it is highly esteem'd by them.
_The Natural History of Chocolate_, R. Brookes, 1730.
Of Cacao Shell.--
In Russia and Belgium many families take Caravello at
breakfast. This is nothing but cocoa husk, washed and then
boiled in milk.
_Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacture_, A. Jacoutot.
_Cacao Butter._
In that very able compilation, _Allen's Organic Analysis_, Mr. Leonard
Archbutt states (Vol. II, p. 176) that cacao butter "is obtained in
large quantities as a by-product in the manufacture of chocolate." This
is repeated in the excellent book on _Oils_, by C.A. Mitchell (Common
Commodities of Commerce series). These statements are, of course,
incorrect. We have seen that cacao butter is obtained as a by-product in
the manufacture of cocoa, and is _consumed_ in large quantities in the
manufacture of chocolate. When, during the war, the use of sugar for
chocolate-making was restricted and little chocolate was produced, the
cacao butter formerly used in this industry was freed for other
purposes. Thus there was plenty of cacao butter available at a time when
other fats were scarce. Cacao butter has a pleasant, bland taste
resembling cocoa. The cocoa flavour is very persistent, as many
experimenters found to their regret in their efforts to produce a
tasteless cacao butter which could be used as margarine or for general
purposes in cooking. The scarcity of edible fats during the war forced
the confectioners to try cacao butter, which in normal times is too
expensive for them to use, and as a result a very large amount was
employed in making biscuits and confectionery.
Cacao butter runs hot from the presses as an amber-coloured oil, and
after nitration, sets to a pale golden yellow wax-like fat. The butter,
which the pharmacist sells, is sometimes white and odourless, having
been bleached and deodorized. The butter as produced is always pale
yellow in colour, with a semi-crystalline or granular fracture and an
agreeable taste and odour resembling cocoa or chocolate.
Cacao butter has such remarkable keeping properties (which would appear
to depend on the aromatic substances which it contains), that a myth has
arisen that it will keep for ever. The fable finds many believers even
in scientific circles; thus W.H. Johnson, in the _Imperial Institute
Handbook_ on _Cocoa_, states that: "When pure, it has the peculiar
property of not becoming rancid, however long it may be kept." Whilst
this overstates the case, we find that under suitable conditions cacao
butter will remain fresh and good for several years. Cacao butter has
rather a low melting point (90° F.), so that whilst it is a hard, almost
brittle, solid at ordinary temperatures, it melts readily when in
contact with the human body (blood heat 98° F). This property, together
with its remarkable stability, makes it useful for ointments, pomades,
suppositories, pessaries and other pharmaceutical preparations; it also
explains why actors have found it convenient for the removal of grease
paint. The recognition of the value of cacao butter for cosmetic
purposes dates from very early days; thus in Colmenero de Ledesma's
_Curious Treatise on the Nature and Quality of Chocolate_ (printed at
the Green Dragon, 1685), we read: "That they draw from the cacao a great
quantity of butter, which they use to make their faces shine, which I
have seen practised in the Indies by the Spanish women born there."
This, evidently, was one way of shining in society.
Cacao butter has been put to many other uses, thus it has been employed
in the preparation of perfumes, but the great bulk of the cacao butter
produced is used up by the chocolate maker. For making chocolate it is
ideal, and the demand for it for this purpose is so great that
substitutes have been found and offered for sale. Until recently these
fats, coconut stearine and others, could be ignored by the reputable
chocolate makers as the confection produced by their use was inferior to
true chocolate both in taste and in keeping properties. In recent times
the oils and fats of tropical nuts and fruits have been thoroughly
investigated in the eager search for new fats, and new substitutes, such
as illipé butter, have been introduced, the properties of which closely
resemble those of cacao butter.
For the information of chemists we may state that the analytical figures
for genuine cacao butter, as obtained in the cocoa factory, are as
follow:
ANALYTICAL FIGURES FOR CACAO BUTTER.
Specific Gravity (at 99° C. to water at 15.5° C.) .858 to .865
Melting Point 32°C. to 34°C.
Titer (fatty acids) 49°C. to 50°C.
Iodine Absorbed 34% to 38%
Refraction (Butyro-Refractometer) at 40°C. 45.6° to 46.5°
Saponification Value 192 to 198
Valenta 94°C. to 96°C.
Reichert Meissel Value 1.0
Polenske Value 0.5
Kirschner " 0.5
Shrewsbury and Knapp Value 14 to 15
Unsaponifiable matter 0.3% to 0.8%
Mineral matter 0.02% to 0.05%
Acidity (as oleic acid) 0.6% to 2.0%
Although the trade in cacao butter is considerable, there were, before
the war, only two countries that could really be considered as exporters
of cacao butter; in other words, there were only two countries, namely,
Holland and Germany, pressing out more cacao butter in the production of
cocoa than they absorbed in making chocolate:
EXPORT OF CACAO BUTTER.
Tons (of 1000 kilogrammes)
1911 1912 1913
Holland 4,657 5,472 7,160
Germany 3,611 3,581 1,960
----- ----- -----
8,268 9,053 9,120
----- ----- -----
During the war America appeared for the first time in her history as an
exporter of cacao butter. Hitherto she was one of the principal
importers, as will be seen in the following table:
IMPORTS OF CACAO BUTTER.
Tons (of 1000 kilogrammes)
1912 1913
United States 1,842 1,634
Switzerland 1,821 1,634
Belgium 1,127 1,197
Austria-Hungary 1,062 1,190
Russia 955 1,197
England 495 934
The next table shows the imports (expressed in English tons) into the
United Kingdom in more recent years:
IMPORTS OF CACAO BUTTER.
Year 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917
Tons 477 912 1512 599 962 675
The wholesale price of cacao butter has varied in the last six years
from 1/3 per pound to 2/11 per pound, and was fixed in 1918 by the Food
Controller at 1/6 per pound (retail price 2/- per pound). The control
was removed in 1919, and immediately the wholesale price rose to 2/8 per
pound.
_Cacao Shell._
Although I have described cacao butter as a by-product, the only true
by-product of the combined cocoa and chocolate industry is cacao shell.
I explained in the previous chapter how it is separated from the roasted
bean. As they come from the husking or winnowing machine, the larger
fragments of shell resemble the shell of monkey-nuts (ground nuts or pea
nuts), except that the cacao shells are thinner, more brittle and of a
richer brown colour. The shell has a pleasant odour in which a little
true cocoa aroma can be detected. The small pieces of shell look like
bran, and, if the shell be powdered, the product is wonderfully like
cocoa in appearance, though not in taste or smell. As the raw cacao bean
contains on the average about twelve and a half per cent. of shell, it
is evident that the world production must be considerable (about 36,000
tons a year), and since it is not legitimately employed in cocoa, the
brains of inventors have been busy trying to find a use for it. In some
industries the by-product has proved on investigation to be of greater
value than the principal product--a good instance of this is glycerine
as a by-product in soap manufacture--but no use for the husk or shell of
cacao, which gives it any considerable commercial value, has yet been
discovered. There are signs, however, that its possible uses are being
considered and appreciated.
For years small quantities of cacao shell, under the name of
"miserables," have been used in Ireland and other countries for
producing a dilute infusion for drinking. Although this "cocoa tea" is
not unpleasant, and has mild stimulating properties, it has never been
popular, and even during the war, when it was widely advertised and sold
in England under fancy names at fancy prices, it never had a large or
enthusiastic body of consumers.
In normal times the cocoa manufacturer has no difficulty in disposing of
his shell to cattle-food makers and others, but during 1915 when the
train service was so defective, and transport by any other means almost
impossible, the manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate were unable to get
the shell away from their factories, and had large accumulations of it
filling up valuable store space. In these circumstances they attempted
to find a use near at hand. It was tried with moderate success as a fuel
and a considerable quantity was burned in a special type of gas-producer
intended for wood.
Cacao shell has a high nitrogenous content, and if burned yields about
67 lbs. of potassium carbonate per ton. In the Annual Report of the
Experimental Farms in Canada, (1898, p. 151 and 1899, p. 851,) accounts
are given of the use of cacao shell as a manure. The results given are
encouraging, and experiments were made at Bournville. At first these
were only moderately successful, because the shell is extremely stable
and decomposes in the ground very slowly indeed. Then the head gardener
tried hastening the decomposition by placing the shell in a heap,
soaking with water and turning several times before use. In this way the
shell was converted into a decomposing mass before being applied to the
ground, and gave excellent results both as a manure and as a lightener
of heavy soils.
On the Continent the small amount of cacao butter which the shell
contains is extracted from it by volatile solvents. The "shell butter"
so obtained is very inferior to ordinary cacao butter, and as usually
put on the market, has an unpleasant taste, and an odour which reminds
one faintly of an old tobacco-pipe. In this unrefined condition it is
obviously unsuitable for edible purposes.
Shell contains about one per cent. of _theobromine_ (dimethylxanthine).
This is a very valuable chemical substance (see remarks in chapter on
Food Value of Cocoa and Chocolate), and the extraction of theobromine
from shell is already practised on a large scale, and promises to be a
profitable industry. Ordinary commercial samples of shell contain from
1.2 to 1.4 per cent. of theobromine. Those interested should study the
very ingenious process of Messrs. Grousseau and Vicongne (Patent No.
120,178). Many other uses of cacao shell have been made and suggested;
thus it has been used for the production of a good coffee substitute,
and also, during the shortage of sawdust, as a packing material, but its
most important use at the present time is as cattle food, and its most
important abuse as an adulterant of cocoa.
The value of cacao shell as cattle food has been known for a long time,
and is indicated in the following analysis by Smetham (in the Journal of
the Lancashire Agricultural Society, 1914).
ANALYSIS OF CACAO SHELL.
Water 9.30
Fat 3.83
Mineral Matter 8.20
Albuminoids 18.81
Fibre 13.85
Digestible Carbohydrates 46.01
------
100.00
------
From these figures Smetham calculates the food units as 102, so that it
is evident that cacao shell occupies a good position when compared with
other fodders:
FOOD UNITS.
Linseed cake 133
Oatmeal 117
Bran 109
English wheat 106
_Cacao shells_ 102
Maize (new crop) 99
Meadow hay 68
Rice husks 43
Wheat straw 41
Mangels 12
These analytical results have been supported by practical feeding
experiments in America and Germany (see full account in Zipperer's book,
_The Manufacture of Chocolate_). Prof. Faelli, in Turin, obtained, by
giving cacao shell to cows, an increase in both the quantity and quality
of the milk. More recent experience seems to indicate that it is unwise
to put a very high percentage of cacao shell in a cattle food; in small
quantities in compound feeding cakes, etc., as an appetiser it has been
used for years with good results. (Further particulars will be found in
_Cacao Shells as Fodder_, by A.W. Knapp, _Tropical Life_, 1916, p. 154,
and in _The Separation and Uses of Cacao Shell_, Society of Chemical
Industry's Journal, 1918, 240). The price of shell has shown great
variation. The following figures are for the grade of shell which is
almost entirely free from cocoa:
CACAO SHELL.
AVERAGE PRICE PER TON.
Year 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
Price 65/- 70/- 70/- 70/- 90/- 128/- 284/- 161/-
PRICE PER FOOD UNIT.
_July_, 1915. _Jan._, 1919.
_s._ _d._ _s._ _d._
English Oats 3 1-1/2 3 8
Cotton Seed Cake 2 5 3 11
Linseed Cake 1 7 3 5
Brewers Grains (dried) 1 6-1/2 3 8-1/2
Decorticated Cotton Cake 1 6 3 3-1/2
Cacao Shell 8-1/4 1 4-1/2
The above table speaks for itself; the figures are from the Journal of
the Board of Agriculture; I have added cacao shell for comparison.