Imagine you pick out a juicy apple, but instead of taking a big bite out of the fruit, you keep the seeds and throw the rest away.
That’s what chocolate producers have traditionally done with cocoa: use the bean and throw away the rest.
Now, however, food experts in Switzerland have come up with a way to make chocolate based on all cocoa fruitinstead of just its seeds, and without adding sugar.
The chocolate, developed at the prestigious Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich by scientist Kim Mishra and his team, includes the pulp, juice and shell or endocarp of cocoa.
An innovative process
The process has begun to attract the attention of sustainable food production companies.
They point out that traditional chocolate production, which uses only the seeds, means leaving the rest of the cacao fruit – which is the size of a pumpkin and packed with nutritional value – to rot in the ground.
The key to the new chocolate lies in its very sweet juice which tastes, according to Mishra, “very fruity, a bit like pineapple.”
The juice, which is 14% sugar, is distilled until it is reduced to a highly concentrated molasses, combined with the pulp, and then, reaching new levels of sustainability, mixed with the dried shell, or endocarp, to form a very sweet cocoa jelly.
By adding jelly to cocoa beans to make chocolate the need to use sugar is eliminated.
Mishra places his invention as the latest in a long list of innovations achieved by Swiss chocolate producers.
In the 19th century, Rudolf Lindt of the famous Lindt chocolate dynasty accidentally invented the key process of “conching” of chocolate -stir the warm cocoa butter to homogenize it and reduce its acidity- leaving the cocoa in a large mixer overnight.
The result the next morning: a delicious, sweet and smooth chocolate.
“Sustainability”, the future of chocolate
“You need to be innovative to keep your product class-leading,” Mishra says. “Or… you’ll just make mediocre chocolate.”
Mishra was associated in this project with KOA, a Swiss startup dedicated to sustainable cocoa farmingIts co-founder, Anian Schreiber, believes that using the entire cocoa fruit could solve many of the cocoa industry’s problems, from the high cost of the bean to the endemic poverty of cocoa farmers.
“Instead of fighting over who gets what slice of the pie, you make the pie bigger so everyone benefits,” he explains.
“Growers receive significant additional income from using cocoa pulp, but there is also an important industrial process in the country where the raw material comes from. This creates jobs and creates value that can be distributed in the country of origin.”
Schreiber describes the traditional system of chocolate production, in which farmers in Africa and South America sell their cocoa beans to large chocolate producers based in rich countries, such as “untenable”.
That model is also being challenged in a new exhibition in Geneva exploring Switzerland’s colonialist past.
Letizia Pinoja, a chocolate historian, responds to those who point out that Switzerland never had its own colonies, highlighting thatSwiss mercenary soldiers guarded other countries’ colonies and Swiss ship owners transported slaves.
Geneva in particular, he says, has a particular link to some of the most exploitative phases of the chocolate industry.
“Geneva is a hub for the trade of raw materials, and from the 18th century, cocoa was arriving in Geneva and then the rest of Switzerland to produce chocolate.”
“Without this colonial commodity trade, Switzerland would never have become the land of chocolate. And cocoa is no different than any other type of colonial commodity. They all came from slavery.”
New regulations
Today, the chocolate industry is much more regulated. Producers must monitor their entire production chain to ensure ensure that it does not involve child labor. And, starting next year, all chocolate imported into the European Union must be guaranteed that there was no deforestation to cultivate the cocoa that produced it.
But does that mean all the problems have been solved?
Roger Wehrli, director of the Swiss chocolate producers’ association, Chocosuisse, says that problems of child labour and deforestation remain, particularly in Africa. He fears that some producers, in an attempt to evade the challenges, are simply trying to avoid the problem. transferring its production to South America.
“Does this solve the problem in Africa? No. I think it would be better for responsible companies to stay in Africa and help improve the situation.”
That’s why Wehrli sees the new chocolate developed in Zurich as “very promising… if you use the whole cocoa fruit, you can get better prices. So it’s economically interesting for the growers. And it’s interesting from an ecological perspective.”
The relationship between chocolate production and the environment is also a topic Anian Schreiber highlights. One third of all agricultural produce, he says, “never ends up in our mouths.”
These statistics are even worse for cocoa, if the fruit is thrown away and only the seeds are used. “It is as if you throw away the whole hand and only use the seeds. That is what we currently do with the cocoa fruit.”
Food production involves significant greenhouse gas emissions, so reducing food waste would also help to tackle climate change. Chocolate, a luxury item, might not be a big factor on its own, but both Schreiber and Wehrli believe it would be a starting point.
And the cost?
Back in the lab, key questions remain. How much will this new chocolate cost? And, most importantly, without sugar, what does it actually taste like?
The answer to the last question, in the opinion of this chocolate-loving correspondent, is: surprisingly good. An intense, sweet flavour, although with a hint of the bitterness of cocoa. which would perfectly complement a coffee at the end of a meal.
Price could continue to be an issue, given the global power of the sugar industry and the generous subsidies it receives.
“The cheapest ingredient in food will always be sugar as long as it remains subsidized: for a tonne of sugar you pay US$500 or less,” explains Kim Mishra.
Cocoa pulp and juice cost more, so The new chocolate, for now, would be more expensive.
However, chocolate producers in cocoa-growing countries from Hawaii to Guatemala to Ghana have contacted Mishra for information about the new method.
In Switzerland, some of the big producers – including Lindt – are starting to use the fruit, as well as the seeds but, so far, None have taken the step of eliminating sugar completely.
“We need to find bold chocolate producers who are willing to test the market and are willing to contribute to making sustainable chocolate,” says Mishra.
“This is how we will change the system.”
Perhaps those daring producers are in Switzerland, whose chocolate industry produces 200,000 tons of chocolate a year, with an estimated value of US$2 billion.
In Chocosuisse, Roger Wehrli predicts a more sustainable and even radiant future.
“I think chocolate will continue to taste fantastic in the future,” he insists. “And I think demand will increase in the future due to the growth of the world population.”
And will they continue to consume Swiss chocolate? “Obviously,” he replies.
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