Lab-grown food substitutes have gained momentum over the past decade for various reasons, including environmental impact and rising demand for plant-based alternatives. Considering the former, American company Mondelez International has backed an Israeli food-tech startup to create chocolate bars with cultured cocoa.
Celleste Bio and Mondelez are among the first to unveil milk chocolate bars made from real cocoa butter using cell suspension culture technology. The achievement is notable as it allows the cocoa tech leader to scale capacity and build a commercially viable cocoa supply, reducing reliance on traditional cocoa farming, which has led to massive-scale deforestation.
The startup informs that it has manufactured nearly a dozen prototypes with partner Mondelez, meeting its internal quality standards. The lab-grown cocoa butter is bio-identical to the conventional counterpart, offering the same texture and melt profile, the brand reports.
The cocoa cells were grown in a controlled environment to replicate the compounds in naturally grown cocoa. Instead of relying on cocoa farms, this process relied on a small sample of cocoa beans. The cells were grown in bioreactors, fed nutrients to multiply and produce cocoa butter.
Celleste Bio aims to secure a sustainable future for the global chocolate industry, one that doesn’t rely on the traditional supply chain. The existing supply is already under the pressures of climate change, disease, fluctuating yields, and geopolitical instability. The lab-grown approach can considerably reduce the land and resources required in typical production.
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If the company’s claim is believed, then a single bean can create enough cocoa butter for chocolate production when scaled through bioreactors. “We are on track to produce 1 ton of cocoa butter annually in a 1,000-liter bioreactor from a single bean, which would otherwise require about a hectare of cocoa trees,” says Hanne Volpin, Celleste’s Chief Technical and Scientific Officer.
While this marks a considerable achievement, the technology is still in its nascent stage, wherein scale production remains the key challenge. Celleste aims to bring its cocoa butter to market by next year, pending governing approvals. Regardless, the idea of lab-grown cocoa is thrilling as it forgoes the farms entirely and stabilizes the supply chains through the lab.
