Multiblock Analysis to Relate Polyphenol Targeted Mass Spectrometry and Sensory Properties of Chocolates and Cocoa Beans
1
SPO, INRAE, Univ Montpellier, Institut Agro—Montpellier Supagro, 34060 Montpellier, France
2
Ondalys, 34830 Clapiers, France
3
ITAP, INRAE, Univ Montpellier, Institut Agro—Montpellier Supagro, 34060 Montpellier, France
4
ChemHouse Research Group, 34060 Montpellier, France
5
CIRAD, UMR Qualisud, 34398 Montpellier, France
6
Qualisud, Université de Montpellier, CIRAD, Montpellier SupAgro, Université d’Avignon, Université de La Réunion, F-34000 Montpellier, France
7
Valrhona SA, 26600 Tain l’Hermitage, France
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Metabolites 2020, 10(8), 311; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10080311
Received: 29 June 2020 / Revised: 23 July 2020 / Accepted: 27 July 2020 / Published: 29 July 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phenolic Compounds and Metabolome)
Chocolate quality is largely due to the presence of polyphenols and especially of flavan-3-ols and their derivatives that contribute to bitterness and astringency. The aim of the present work was to assess the potential of a quantitative polyphenol targeted metabolomics analysis based on mass spectrometry for relating cocoa bean polyphenol composition corresponding chocolate polyphenol composition and sensory properties. One-hundred cocoa bean samples were transformed to chocolates using a standard process, and the latter were attributed to four different groups by sensory analysis. Polyphenols were analyzed by an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) system hyphenated to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. A multiblock method called a Common Component and Specific Weights Analysis (CCSWA) was used to study relationships between the three datasets, i.e., cocoa polyphenols, chocolate polyphenols and sensory profiles. The CCSWA multiblock method coupling sensory and chocolate polyphenols differentiated the four sensory poles. It showed that polyphenolic and sensory data both contained information enabling the sensory poles’ separation, even if they can be also complementary. A large amount of variance in the cocoa bean and corresponding chocolate polyphenols has been linked. The cocoa bean phenolic composition turned out to be a major factor in explaining the sensory pole separation.
Keywords:
polyphenols; mass spectrometry; sensory; chocolate; chemometrics; multiblock analysis