The team collaborated in efforts to perfect the process for sustainable Koa cocoa products. “Taste is king. When something tastes good, you naturally want to share it with everyone and their grandmother,” says Anian Schreiber, founder and CEO of Koa. And he’s right: there is growing evidence that, ultimately, Consumers care more about taste than ethics. “If a product is too expensive or tasteless, the other complaints don’t matter. All the reasons for eating chocolate are always the same: personal rewards, whims and celebrations, big and small. Consequently, the narrative and origin of cocoa They play a vital role, but especially because of their impact on taste,” explains Sukanya Nag, food technologist and innovation and strategy consultant at food and nutrition company, FutureBridge.
Does the new product pass the taste test?
Mishra thinks so, explaining that although the taste is different, it is still appealing: “There will definitely be a change in taste. The chocolate melts the same, has the same look and the same snap, but the sensation of sweetness is different. It has notes of dried fruits and more acidity of the juice. Mishra hopes that by using the entire cocoa fruit, the sustainability of chocolate production will go hand in hand with a reduction in price.
This starts by boosting supply through farmers’ income. If producers want to buy more cocoa fruit, farmers have access to diversified income sources, which finances expansion prospects and attracts more farmers to a trade stigmatized by poverty. Then there is the product itself: Chocolate made solely from the fruit could be considered 100% cocoa, meaning high-percentage products could be produced with fewer beans.offering the sector a safety net in the face of shortages.
“Pascalization” and other alternatives to chocolate
However, Swiss specialists could have competition, as chocolate challenges have spurred innovation for a longer period. Voyage Food, based in California, USA, opts for a completely opposite solution: a chocolate without cocoamade with sunflower seeds, grape seeds and palm and shea oils certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Although cocoa-free chocolate may sound counterintuitive, it appears to have been successful, and the company just announced plans to open a 300,000-square-foot plant in Ohio. The news follows a deal reached in April with US food supplier Cargill, which saw Voyage become the company’s exclusive global B2B distributor for its nut-free spreads and cocoa-free chocolate.
For its part, the world’s leading chocolate company, Mars, wants to get to the root of the problem by improving the resistance of the cocoa plant. The food giant is collaborating with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Davis University to sequence the genome of disease pathogens that wreak havoc on crop yields, such as black spot disease . The idea is to diagnose at a microscopic level and select resistant trees, completely avoiding supply problems in the sector.
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