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more about cacao processing-
After harvesting, the beans are removed from the pods and piled in heaps. The growers allow the beans to ferment for several days in order to develop the chemical precursors of the chocolate flavor. The beans are then dried and transported to chocolate factories.
At the factory, the cured beans are sorted and impurities such as sand and plant materials are removed . The beans are then roasted. This process makes the bean shells brittle, darkens the color of the beans, and converts the beans' flavor precursors into the aldehydes, esters, lactones, pyrazines, and other groups of compounds that give chocolate its distinctive flavor and aroma.
The next step is to break up the roasted beans into pieces called nibs and remove the thin shells by blowing air through the beans in a process known as winnowing. The nibs are then ground into chocolate liquor--a thick brown liquid that solidifies at about room temperature.
They remove sand and plant material, but leave rat feces? I don't think so. and blowing the air through the beans should blow out any remaining icky stuff.
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