COCOA BY-PRODUCTS O 
the production of cacao butter, much of the press cake not intended 
for use as cocoa powder has been either low grade (too poor in 
quality to satisfy the legal requirements for powdered cocoa), or 
pressed "dry " in very powerful presses to a minimum fat content. 
In this bulletin the cake produced as a by-product in the manu- 
facture of cacao butter is designated low-grade or by-product cocoa 
cake, to distinguish it from the cake intended for the preparation 
of the powder used in making potable cocoa. 
The cake has had so little value at times that some manufacturers 
have used their surplus for fuel in order to get rid of it. Persons 
familiar with the situation and the material have therefore turned 
to utilization as fertilizer as offering a more profitable outlet for 
the surplus cake ; and the United States Department of Agriculture 
from time to time has received samples of the pressed cake with 
requests that the material be analyzed and its value as fertilizer 
determined. 
The defatted cocoa residue from press cake that has been sub- 
jected to solvent-extraction for recovery of its fat, appears to have 
been of little or no value, except as fertilizer material. 
There are, therefore, at the present time three types of cocoa by- 
products with a market value sufficiently low to make them of interest 
to the fertilizer trade: (1) The surplus powdered cocoa and low- 
grade press cake s ; (2) the fat-free, solvent-extracted cake residue; 
and (3) the shells. 
BY-PRODUCT COCOA PRESS CAKE AND POWDER 
One of the first samples of cocoa press cake submitted to the 
department, with a request from the manufacturer for suggestions 
as to how the material could be utilized, on examination was found 
to contain over 23 per cent of cacao fat, and to be similar in com- 
position to " breakfast cocoa." ° The manufacturer stated that he 
had a great oversupply of this press cake at the time, with abso- 
lutely no demand. In view of the very apparent economic saving 
to be attained through full and efficient utilization of the constitu- 
ents of such a product, 10 it was decided (1) to seek information on 
the quantity of similar material available and the extent to which 
it was being subjected to solvent-extraction for the commercial re- 
covery of cacao fat, and (2) to ascertain its properties in relation 
to possible ultimate utilization as fertilizer material. 
Authentic information of this sort and statistical data on the 
production of press-cake residues from the manufacture of cacao 
butter were not found either in the standard textbooks on the cocoa 
and chocolate industry, or in the trade journals. Hence it was 
necessary to seek the desired information directly from the pro- 
ducers. A questionnaire relating to the quantity of the material 
produced, the quantity available for fertilizer, and the proportion 
being subjected to solvent-extraction for the recovery of additional 
s Included with the low-grade cake is a relatively small quantity of fines press cake, 
which includes the cacao germs. 
This material contained somewhat more crude fiber and ash than wonld be per- 
missible in breakfast cocoa, indicating that less care had been taken in the cleaning and 
removal of shells. 
10 Cacao butter was quoted at 26 cents per pound at the time, so that the intrinsic 
value of the fat in 1 ton of the material represented by the sample was over ijUL'O. 
