A study carried out by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the Max Rubner-Institut, Germany, shows that cocoa and cocoa-based foods contain substantial amounts of vitamin D2 (also known as ergocalciferol). According to the study, cocoa butter and dark chocolate have the highest vitamin D2 content and white chocolate has the lowest.
Kühn et al show that cocoa beans from different growing regions contain vitamin D2.
“Vitamin D is crucial for the human body and comes in two types: vitamin D2 and D3,” explained Martin Luther University’s Professor Gabriele Stangl and co-authors.
“Vitamin D3 is produced in the human skin through exposure to the Sun. Humans get 90% of their vitamin D requirements this way. The rest is ideally consumed through food, such as fatty fish or chicken eggs.”
“Vitamin D2, which can also be utilized by the human body, is found in fungi.”
Cocoa beans are susceptible to fungal contamination and often contain substantial amounts of ergosterol, the precursor to vitamin D2.
Professor Stangl and colleagues hypothesized that sun-drying the fermented cocoa beans might lead to the conversion of ergosterol to vitamin D2.
In order to test this, the researchers analyzed cocoa beans and cocoa-based foods using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry.
“We show that cocoa beans from different growing regions contain vitamin D2. Particularly high vitamin D2 content was found in cocoa powder and butter,” they said.
Among the chocolates, dark chocolate had the highest vitamin D2 content (ranging from 1.90 to 5.48 µg/100 g), white chocolate had the lowest vitamin D2 content (ranging from 0.19 to 1.91 µg/100 g).
Chocolate nut spreads had a comparatively low vitamin D2 content, with an average of 0.15 µg/100 g.
“Cocoa is an exciting raw food material because it contains additional secondary plant substances that, for example, benefit the cardiovascular system,” Professor Stangl said.
The study appears in the journal Food Chemistry.
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Julia Kühn et al. 2018. Cocoa and chocolate are sources of vitamin D2. Food Chemistry 269: 318-320; doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.06.098
