A world without cocoa? Lab-grown chocolate and other technologies may provide alternative, but not replacement – expert panel

The panel convened at at the recent Cocoa Association Asia (CAA) International Cocoa Conference 2024.

It was comprised of Barry Callebaut AMEA Regional Marketing Director Racheal Toh, Junglegold Bali Founder and CEO Tobias Garritt, ofi APAC Cocoa Regional Marketing Head Renee Tay, PROVA APAC Regional Director Julien Le Ky Huong and Innova Market Insights Customer Success Manager APAC Felicia Kristianti.

The session was moderated by FoodNavigator-Asia Editor-in-Chief Gary Scattergood, and focused on the potential scenario of a World Without Cocoa, driven by the fact that cocoa supply has fallen significantly over the past year leading to sky-high prices and this trend is predicted to continue well into at least 2025.

With the cocoa industry abuzz with discussion surrounding potential solutions to a potential lack of this commodity, a major topic of discussion in this session was the potential of technologies such as lab-grown chocolate or chocolate made using fava beans or sunflower seeds coming in to fill the gap.

“Lab-grown cocoa is a solution that could solve some of the current challenges given that this method would definitely be free from deforestation, and as it is 25% of Asian consumers have already expressed a positive perception of cell-based ingredients,”​ Kristianti said.

“There are also novel technologies that are being developed to drive the cocoa industry forward, for instance Voyage Foods and Cargill have a technology replicating chocolate and nut spreads without cocoa, peanuts and hazelnuts, and NuKoKo is fermenting fava beans with the same process used on cocoa beans to make cocoa-free chocolate.​

“What these alternatives are really targeting is the replication of that same indulgent experience that consumers associate with chocolate.”​

However, others in the panel said that many of these proposed solutions are unlikely to give the industry any long-term resolution to current challenges throughout the supply chain.

“We need to remember that when alternative proteins like plant-based came along, everyone thought that there would be more of a tidal shift that what actually happened, and now this is being mirrored here,”​ Garritt said.

“Lab-grown can be an amazing solution and it might solve the market issue in terms of end-products – but it will not address the fundamental issues facing farmers and deforestation and all of that.​

“Furthermore, real chocolate lovers are going to be very discerning about what they want and they will want real, authentic chocolate, not lab-grown or anything like that which is not the real item.”​

This was seconded by Tay who stressed that consumers, especially here in Asia, are very exacting in their food choices.

“Consumers are going to want their chocolate to taste exactly the same as they expect it to taste,”​ she said.

“So the cocoa alternatives may have a specific segment they cater to, but it will not be for the discerning chocolate consumer.”​

Replacement challenges​

Expecting to make direct, straightforward changes to the components of chocolate or its processing is not as simple as it seems, as according to Le cocoa has one of the most complex flavour profiles in the food sector.

“The cocoa flavour has over 500 molecules participating in the taste experience – I could give you any one of those 500 and you would not say it tastes or smells like chocolate, the whole combination is needed to get that profile,”​ he told the floor.

“So this is a case where flavour is not going to be a magic wand, as nothing is able to replace cocoa to a certain extent, and it can only be partially replaced given it ranks second behind coffee in terms of flavour complexity – so what I think is more realistic is that it is possible to reduce the amount of cocoa needed in a product to survive this crisis and shortage, but not to remove it entirely.”​

Toh concurred and added that it has now also become imperative to reframe the consumer perception of cocoa in Asia, and look at it very differently from the west.

“In the end, consumers want indulgent, tasty, nutritious products to be made with cocoa and chocolate, and we need to consider reframing how we talk about chocolate to move this away from just being a product, but more of an experience,”​ she said.

“A very big factor for this is that chocolate consumption here in Asia is far behind western markets at around 200g per capita in China or maximum 1kg in Singapore versus 10kg in the west – but consumers here are very open to experiences.​

“So if we can figure out how to capitalise on this and give consumers that holistic chocolate experience in order to reframe the entire discussion, this could be another realistic direction for the industry to evolve.”​