Swiss researchers have developed a healthier, more sustainable chocolate by utilizing underutilized parts of the cocoa fruit. According to a Nature Food report, scientists incorporated cocoa pulp and husk alongside cocoa beans to create a sweet, fibrous gel. The gel is extremely sweet and can serve as a natural sweetener instead of sugar in chocolate making process.
The cocoa fruit possesses a hard outer layer within which beans are arranged. These beans are surrounded by light-colored pulp. Traditional chocolate production exclusively relies on these beans. However, this new method also uses pulp.
Usually, “introducing moisture into chocolate is a complete no-go because you are essentially destroying it”, said Kim Mishra a food technologist at ETH Zürich and lead author of the study. “We disrespected one of the most holy rules of chocolate-making.”
After extraction, only the outer layer of fruits remains, primarily used as fuel or compost according to ETH. Therefore, this innovative method reduces waste and optimizes the use of every part of the cocoa fruit, enhancing sustainability in chocolate production. ETH has also filed a patent for its cocoa-fruit chocolate recipe.
The ‘whole food’ approach yielded a product with a similar taste to traditional chocolate but with enhanced nutritional value. Its fiber content slightly exceeded that of average European dark chocolate.
For example, European dark chocolate has 12 grams of fiber per 100 grams, whereas cocoa fruit chocolate contains 15 grams. Additionally, it contains 23 grams of saturated fatty acids compared to 33 grams of an average European dark chocolate.
Besides nutritional value, chocolate made through the new method was identical to dark chocolate in texture with taste similar to dark chocolates from South America.
Chocolate is one of the most polluting foods in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional chocolate production relies exclusively on cocoa beans, necessitating extensive land use and contributing to heightened emissions. On the contrary, this method uses cocoa fruit components like husk and pulp, thus reducing chocolate production’s environmental footprint.
A study found that while this new chocolate-making method reduced land and water use by 6%, an additional drying step increased energy consumption and emissions by 12%. However, drying the pulp in the sun or using solar panels could reduce these emissions.
Reference: The Guardian
