# Evaluating the Quality of Raw Chocolate as an Alternative to Commercial Products
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Chemical Composition and Visual Assessment
In another study, chocolates from Peru had phenolic contents ranging from 1.69 mg GAE/g to 5.39 mg GAE/g [43]. [PERSON] et al. [44] obtained polyphenol contents in chocolates in the range of 7.21 mg GAE/g to 12.65 mg GAE/g. [PERSON] \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Sample** & **Total Phenolic Content** & **Total Flavonoid Content** & **\% DPPH Radical** & **Antioxidant Activity** \\  & **(mg GAE/g)** & **(mg ECE/g)** & **Inhibition** & **(\#M TE/g)** \\ \hline COM 50\% & 7.87 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 3.83 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 12.72 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 63.76 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline COM 64\% & 9.25 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 4.43 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 23.63 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 132.60 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ \hline MAN & 22.08 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 8.75 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 29.91 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 172.16 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ \hline Cocoa beans & 27.82 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 12.22 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 36.95 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 216.61 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity of the analysed samples of raw chocolate, commercial chocolates, and cocoa beans. et al. [13] showed that the content of total polyphenols in dark chocolate ranged from 10.55 to 39.82 mg GAE/g. In addition, it was found that the chocolate samples with the highest cocoa content were characterized by the highest content of polyphenols. It is known that the total polyphenol content varies depending on the variety of cocoa beans and the conditions during fermentation, drying, roasting, processing, and storage. In some cases, the results obtained cannot be directly compared due to different extraction solvents. In addition, some literature results are reported as mg of GAE per gram of cocoa product, while other results are reported as mg of GAE per gram of chocolate defatted sample, which contributes to some variation between the results [45]. The content of flavonoids in a study on cocoa beans from China, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea ranged from 3.50 mg ECE/g to 12.62 mg ECE/g [46], and the highest of those values corresponded to the value obtained in the experiment presented herein. The content of flavonoids in chocolates from Peru varied from 0.28 mg CE/g (catechin equivalents) to 1.99 mg CE/g [43]. In another study, the level of flavonoids in lipid-free chocolate masses fell within the range of 0.02 mg ECE/g to 6.01 mg ECE/g [47]. [PERSON] et al. [13] showed that the total flavonoid content in dark chocolate samples ranged from 10.04 to 37.85 mg CE/g. The chocolate samples with the highest levels of total polyphenols also contained the highest contents of flavonoids [13], which was also confirmed in our study. Samples with the highest content of cocoa showed the highest content of flavonoids. According to [PERSON] et al. [48], cocoa has a higher content of flavonoids per portion than tea or red wine. Powdered cocoa is one of the richest identified dietary sources of flavonoids so far, next to buckwheat hulls, sorghum, and cinnamon [49]. The highest value of antioxidant activity, a 36.95% DPPH radical inhibition, was noted for non-roasted cocoa beans, which corresponded to 216.61 uM TE/g (Table 3). Higher antioxidant activity results for cocoa beans were obtained by [PERSON] et al. [9], i.e., between 295 and 329 uM TE/g (unfermented cocoa beans) and from 221 to 351 uM TE/g (fermented cocoa beans). The second-ranking sample in terms of antioxidant activity was the raw chocolate MAN obtained from non-roasted cocoa beans, which had an inhibition at a level of 29.91% (172.16 uM TE/g). The sample of commercial chocolate (COM 64%) was characterised by antioxidant activity at a level of 23.63% inhibition (132.60 uM TE/g). The lowest value of antioxidant activity was noted in the case of the commercial chocolate COM 50%-at a 12.72% inhibition (63.76 uM TE/g). [PERSON] et al. [38] showed that two types of dark chocolate, i.e., artisanal and industrial, had antioxidant activities of 79.81 and 68.65 uM TE/g, respectively, which were lower than in our study.