Cocoa innovation is all around, from cocoa-free chocolate through to cell cultivation. That\u2019s unsurprising given the state of the cocoa sector, which has been plagued by extreme volatility over the last 18 months.<\/p>\n
But Nestl\u00e9 isn\u2019t concentrating efforts on alternatives. Instead, it\u2019s working to get more yield from cocoa fruit with a new, patented technique.<\/p>\n
Using more cocoa fruit in chocolate production<\/p>\n
The new process can use up to 30% more cocoa fruit in the production of chocolate. That\u2019s almost a third of the cocoa fruit (including the pulp, placenta and pod husk) that might otherwise be discarded.<\/p>\n
In traditional chocolate production, it\u2019s just the cocoa beans that are harvested from the cocoa pod. They\u2019re then fermented, dried, roasted, and ground into a liquor which is used to make confectionery. Nestl\u00e9\u2019s approach is now to valorise all parts of the fruit inside the cocoa pod.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a simplified process. As the company puts it, \u201ceverything inside the pod is collected as a wet mass\u201d. That mass ferments naturally and, importantly, unlocks the \u201ckey chocolate flavour\u201d. The reason the process works so well, suggests Nestl\u00e9, is that it allows for chocolate to maintain its \u201cgreat taste\u201d. <\/p>\n
Once the mass is ground, roasted and dried, it ends up as chocolate flakes, ready for confectionery production.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis groundbreaking technique utilises more of the fruit, while enabling us to provide delicious chocolate to our consumers,\u201d explains Louise Barrett, head of the Nestl\u00e9 Research and Development Center for Confectionery in York, UK.<\/p>\n
While still in its pilot stage, the KitKat and Aero maker is exploring how it can scale-up the innovation. At Nestl\u00e9\u2019s York site alone, the company uses up to 12,000 tonnes of cocoa mass to produce chocolate for its brands.<\/p>\n
Maximising cocoa harvests amid chocolate chaos<\/p>\n
The development comes amid what can only be described as a true cocoa crisis. <\/p>\n
Over the past year and a half, crops have been plagued by disease (swollen shoot virus), exacerbated by poor weather. Global warming also poses a major threat to cocoa supply, creating a perfect storm \u2013 leading to supply shortages and record price hikes.<\/p>\n
Also read \u2192 Cocoa crisis: The main causes<\/a><\/p>\n At the same time, chocolate makers have been reformulating<\/a> to reduce cocoa content in their products. As reported by The Grocer<\/a> last month, Nestl\u00e9 is among the companies to have removed the term chocolate from its offerings \u2013 in this case, a white chocolate KitKat \u2013 in the UK, having cut cocoa butter levels below the legal 20% minimum. <\/p>\n It\u2019s against this backdrop that Nestl\u00e9 has been working to make chocolate production more efficient, so more material can be sourced from fewer fruits. <\/p>\n \u201cWith climate change increasingly affecting cocoa yields around the world, we are exploring innovative solutions that could help cocoa farmers maximise the potential of their harvests,\u201d says Barrett. <\/p>\n Indeed, Nestl\u00e9 expects its new technique to bulk up the amount of cocoa material available to farmers, meaning they could have more time to focus on other climate-friendly practices, such as pruning, that help improve yields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cocoa innovation is all around, from cocoa-free chocolate through to cell cultivation. That\u2019s unsurprising given the state of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[7247,12098,110,12099,10184,12095,35,2660,12100,14774,12104,14775,199,12108,3574,4514,14778],"class_list":{"0":"post-66329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nestle","8":"tag-branding","9":"tag-candy-bar","10":"tag-chocolate","11":"tag-chocolate-candy","12":"tag-concepts-and-ideas","13":"tag-editorial","14":"tag-food","15":"tag-food-and-drink","16":"tag-heap","17":"tag-mars-bar","18":"tag-mars-incorporated","19":"tag-milk-chocolate","20":"tag-nestle","21":"tag-no-people","22":"tag-small","23":"tag-snack","24":"tag-sweet-food"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116583467915155474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}