Level: Novice
Read time: 10 minutes
I just received my beans and noticed that in the bag containing the Bolivia beans there are some maggots, bugs, spiderwebs, and some beans with small holes in them. I’m still relatively new to chocolate making so this may be a simple question, but is this normal? Can I still use the beans safely, or are they compromised?
Honestly, this is one of the more reasoned questions I’ve had about this. Thank you. I hope to do it justice with a likewise reasoned response.
Possible trigger warning
I’m not joking around today. This subject and people’s sensitivities are not to be made light of and this could be an uncomfortable subject for some.
Today’s discussion is about Ephestia elutella, the lovely name for the pesky cocoa moth. It’s also known as the tobacco or warehouse moth.
First some full disclosure. We recently had some cocoa larva emerge from a shipment ofBolivian Rio Beni. This ATA is in response to it, and the perceived problems it creates. No one in the industry seems to want to talk about Cocoa Moths because it’s sensitive and theres money on the line but now and then reality has to trump commerce. Education and science matter to us
First, let’s define the difference between a larva and a maggot because I’m pedantic as fuck, and also because terms matter. We have different terms because they mean different things. A maggot is a specific kind of larva for many types of flies. We find the term maggot distasteful because that specific kind of larva is associated with disease. Cocoa Moth larva are never maggots, they never become maggots. Both are larva, but one is bad for humans, the other is just a stage of bug life. Hopefully, knowing this makes for a mellower association to the word larva.
I get there is a huge ick factor to this topic and the larva themselves. This is why I want to talk openly and not make light of it.
I want to assure everyone that cocoa moths and larva are 100% harmless.
That is NOT to say it is ok they are in your beans.
It’s not okay because they can damage your beans, but not because of health concerns. In most cases you can just continue your normal chocolate making process after finding a moth or larva without throwing your bag out, or burning your house down to get rid of them. That’s the rational answer.
Just like butterflies, the cocoa moth develops from an egg to a larva to a pupa to a moth. The moths only live about two weeks, but under the right conditions the female can lay up to 300 eggs. In Covid language: R = 300, and we know at this point that is not good at all (for us). In fact, it is really bad and also why there isn’t a single established bean to bar maker I know that doesn’t have cocoa moths around. You do your best to keep them in check, you make sure your cocoa is sealed away form them and you have a pest management strategy to minimize them and deal with them when, not if, they come around. We’ll talk all about that.
The good mother moths lays her eggs in or close to food her offspring favors, which includes grains, flours, nuts, tobacco and cocoa. After two weeks of feeding and making webbing , when temperatures are good, around 70° F / 25° C, the pupae will turn into moths, and the cycle will start all over again.
Let me say this again. Cocoa moths are harmless. They are neither poisonous nor venomous. They can’t hurt you. They are not known to carry disease. And to most Americans this is going to be hard to hear, they are actually edible and have a fine nutty flavor. I’m not joking here. I’ve eaten them to prove a point to someone and found out they were tasty. No, I’m not going to advocate you to eat them, nor am I going to show you the video I took, but I’m not going to stop you either.
There is a token statistic floating around that talks about how many insect parts are allowed in food and guess what, it isn’t zero. We all consume insects and if you didn’t know that, I’m sorry. So let’s put the ick factor aside and talk about why even if you have a cocoa moth issue, most likely they are not going to make it into your chocolate.
Try and put aside your cootie reaction that a bug touched your cocoa and let’s look at facts.
When a moth lays an egg, it normally bores a small hole in the cocoa bean. Sometimes you will see these little holes. Be sure not to mistake them for the little one the very bottom of the beans where the germ/radical can fall out. That tiny hole is not going to compromise the cocoa bean. It is a tiny hole and isn’t going to inherently make the bean bad or inferior. Once the egg hatches the larva are indeed going to eat some of the bean and it is possible one might eat enough to compromise the integrity of the bean. Other times they just go on walkabout and nibble here and there. After it eats enough it will spool out a cocoon/web, settle in and pupate until finally turning into a moth and flitting away.
So you come to a bag of beans and find a larva out and about. That means there is going to be a hole in a bean somewhere in there but that really isn’t a huge issue as 1) it is only going to be a hole and is going to roast just fine or 2) the integrity of the bean will be compromised and when the bean roasts, it will tend to shatter if you are roasting in a drum roaster. Regardless, no live moth, larva or pupa will survive roasting and when you crack and winnow, any compromised beans will shatter and be removed, as will any of the aforementioned bug parts, including their dry casings. They are just too light to stay in your nibs. Any webs will likewise be burned up in the roaster or removed when winnowing.
For all these reasons I don’t recommend sorting your beans searching for holes or nibble marks. The process is going to take care of removal of anything that needs to be removed.
There is of course the question of how much is acceptable and that is super hard to quantify. I kind of wanted to show some photos but was fearful it would leave people stopping right here or hyper comparing to determine what is ok. I’m going to side step the issue of how much by focusing on what matters: prevention.
When you get a bag of beans, you should do a cursory inspection and make sure you see no webs or nom nom friends. If you do, immediately either roast your beans or put the beans in the freezer. Cocoa moths are tropical and don’t like the cold at all. If freezing doesn’t kill them (and it probably will) they are certainly not going to be active and eating. The time it took for the beans to get from us to you isn’t long enough to reach to the level of infestation. Waiting 1-2 months to look at your beans might take you to the infestation level.
Now a freezer isn’t going to work too well with full sacks of beans. For those, you are going to want to figure out how you can treat your beans. I can’t recommend using dry ice enough. It is very safe, easy to get and easy to use. That is what we do here whenever we find larva roaming about. For a 55 gallon drum, we place 1 lb of dry ice into a box (which is also on a pad to catch any condensation) and seal up the drum and leave it for two days. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Anything live will become unalive through suffocation and you can roast and winnow at your leisure.
So what happened with those aforementioned Rio Beni beans if we treat them with dry ice? The fact of the matter is we didn’t treat them because we didn’t see any. We are in Oregon and it has gotten cold. But upon shipping out, our nom nom friends became active and people starting finding them on walk about. That said, they have now been treated and are on a more active preventative schedule. Sticky fly traps are posted and monitored to catch and stop the cycle and we are keeping an eye out for more.
“But I bought quality beans. I shouldn’t have to put up with inferior beans.” I hear some of you saying.
Moth meets Methyl Bromide
I’ve heard this or some version of it many times and it isn’t a fair comment. Moths and their kin are not a sign of inferior quality any more than a lack of them is a sign of quality. To circle back to what I said at the beginning, they are simply something to deal with in fresh cocoa. Interestingly, one could almost look at them in a positive light. If you bought commodity grade, non-organic beans they are fumigated with methyl bromide (which is damaging to the ozone layer, and has very strict protocols because its toxic to humans, which I remind you moth larva are NOT) upon port entry. That you have moths is a sign the beans were not fumigated.
That all said, I want to assure everyone none of this is me saying “there is no problem, get over it”. I’ve reached out to my supplier and we are discussing what can be done about it and how it might have occurred. We are treating our stock here regularly and see no further signs in house.
Please reach out if you have any further concerns. The adage, if in doubt throw it out, might apply but it is my hope is that I’ve given you enough to realize there is now little doubt about safety so there should be little reason to throw your beans away if you find a moth. Just get them treated or roasted and make some chocolate.