Many of you know that we take great care to test our cacao for heavy metals and have those results published on our website.
We’re excited to share that we now also have published our test results for common mold toxins! For those of you that are mold-sensitive due to prior high levels of exposure, ensuring that your favorite foods are mold free is essential. That is why we are thrilled to share with you that all our test results came back completely mold toxin free.
Continue reading to learn more about how we ensure Ora Cacao is mold toxin free and see our test results!
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Cacao & Mold Testing
Did you know that cacao, like coffee, can be vulnerable to mold growth? Cacao trees thrive in lush rainforests and are best suited for 70% - 100% humidity levels…which is also the perfect environment for pathogenic fungi.
Here are the top ways that the farms we work with prevent mold toxins in our cacao…you’ll also learn a bit about how cacao is made in the process.
- Air Flow - imagine light filtering through a beautiful regenerative forest, filled with cacao trees, banana trees, and tall hardwood trees that provide shade for the cacao. One key to keeping the trees disease-free is having healthy air flow moving through. And the farming practice which supports this is good tree pruning, a key part of regenerative agroforestry.
- Fermentation - once the cacao seeds are scooped out of the cacao pods, they are brought to local fermentation centers where piles of wet cacao beans are put into wooden boxes to ferment. This requires careful turning of the fermenting cacao beans to ensure even fermentation of the beans and to prevent anaerobic fermentation and mold.
- Drying - after the cacao beans have fermented, they are placed on drying racks (off the ground to prevent any lead absorption), spread out, and dried in the tropical sun. Drying too fast causes flavor problems, but if the beans dry out too slowly mold could grow on the exteriors. Having enough space for the beans to dry is also a key part of preventing mold because you can imagine that in such humid climates, heaps of wet cacao sitting is a great place for mold.
We’re so grateful for the quality and expertise of our farming partners who make it possible for our lab tests to come back mold free.
We tested for multiple variations of mold toxins including: Aflatoxins, Fumonisins, Ochratoxin, T-2 toxin and more, and all the results yielded a “ND” or “non-detectable” result.
To nerd out with the specifics, you can review the test results here.
