This might be explained by the abundantly available sugary compounds glucose, fructose, and sucrose that served as the substrate for the microbial fermentation. Even with the LAB starter addition, at fermentation day 5 there were still about 20% sugar left. As the comparison there were 30% glucose left and 46% fructose left at day 5 of standard fermentation. Although citric acid could be produced as metabolic products of microbial fermentation, its decreasing profile showed that it also served as the substrate in the cocoa bean fermentation. Overall, the mucilage of cocoa bean was depleted faster with the addition of LAB starter.