Dennis Humberto Pinto Padilla, a M.S. student in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition advised by Dr. Nicki Engeseth, used funds from an ACES international graduate grant to find optimal conditions for producing chocolate in tropical regions.

Pinto’s research focuses on a problem that plagues tropical regions with chocolate – the temperature of storage is often too high, resulting in rapid bloom formation and melting. His goal is to find low-cost, low energy-requiring strategies for temperature stability and therefore better chocolate production in these regions.

During summer 2017, Pinto and his advisor Engeseth visited the Associacion de Productoras- Damas Chocolatera de Jutiapa (DACHOJ), a small cacao foundation in Honduras that produces cacao plants as well as chocolate. His trip was funded by an ACES International Graduate Grant. 

 “Our aim was to help them improve chocolate production. They had issues with processing (particularly winnowing and tempering), but even more striking was their lack of marketing and commercialization strategies,” he said.

Pinto learned much from the experience that will help him finish his research towards his graduate degree.  

“I saw the entire chain of production from plant to chocolate. Specifically, I learned about grafting to improve cacao plant varieties. Also, we gained a true sense of the passion involved in producing and processing cacao beans as well as how dedicated they are to producing high quality chocolate products,” he said.

Pinto hopes that optimizing processing conditions in in small chocolate factories in developing areas will encourage investment that will ultimately help the area’s economy, education, and health.

“There is great potential for further collaborative efforts with this group. This visit also inspired new materials for a course we are planning to develop on chocolate,” he said.