These wastes constitute environmental hazard to these factories and the immediate communities where they are sited. Cocoa bean shell (CBS) a by-product of cocoa bean in chocolate, beverage and cocoa factories, which is crispy brown with pleasant smell is estimated at about 10,500 metric tons per annum and forms about 70% of the waste. Consequent upon this, large quantities of cocoa wastes or by-products are generated. World production in 2017/2018 was downwardly revised to 4.59 million from a previous forecast of 4.64 million and now 3.3% below the prior season’s 4.74 million. These by-products have continued to gain interest of researchers toward converting them to valuable uses such as in production of animal feeds-a critical contribution to improved food security. Cocoa pod husk, cocoa bean shell and cocoa bean meal form over 70% (w/w) of a whole matured fruit of cocoa ( Theobroma cacao L.), and these are the major agro-industrial by-products from cocoa processing industries. With current rising costs of conventional feed ingredients, animal nutritionists have advocated for the use of agro-industrial by-products as unconventional feedstuffs because they are cheaper and available in large quantities in producing countries. Therefore, this chapter presents cocoa by-products as potential tropical feed resources in animal feeds and feeding systems with a view to providing solution to waste management problems associated with cocoa processing factories while increasing animal productivity and reducing cost of animal production. Although their use is severely restricted by antinutritional factor (ANF) theobromine, which is toxic to livestock, there exist modern nutritional technologies capable of being applied to improve application of these resources in livestock feeding systems. Cocoa bean meal, cocoa bean shells, and cocoa pod husks are all potential but unexploited nutritive resources that can be considered as animal feed materials.
Cocoa by-products have been reported as one of such nonconventional feed resources that can replace expensive and competitive conventional feed resources in livestock diets. One of such strategies is the use of alternative or nonconventional feed resources. More than half of the production cost is associated with feeds and feeding alone hence, it becomes imperative for livestock production science to explore lesser known or poorly exploited resources for use in animal feeds and feeding systems to reduce cost and increase productivity. High cost of feeds and feeding management remain unresolved challenges facing livestock production globally specifically in developing countries.
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