GLOBAL – Swiss Food scientists have come up with a way to make chocolate using the entire cocoa fruit rather than just the beans ,and without using sugar.
Chocolate producers have traditionally done with the cocoa fruit, used the beans and disposed of the rest of the fruit.
The chocolate, developed at Zurich’s prestigious Federal Institute of Technology by scientist Kim Mishra and his team includes the cocoa fruit pulp, the juice, and the husk, or endocarp.
Traditional chocolate production, using only the beans, involves leaving the rest of the cocoa fruit – the size of a pumpkin and full of nutritious value – to rot or used as fuel in the fields.
The key to the new chocolate lies in its very sweet juice, which tastes, Mr Mishra explains, “very fruity, a bit like pineapple”.
This juice, which is 14% sugar, is distilled down to form a highly concentrated syrup, combined with the pulp and then, taking sustainability to new levels, mixed with the dried husk, or endocarp, to form a very sweet cocoa gel. The gel, when added to the cocoa beans to make chocolate, eliminates the need for sugar.
This is not all, recent research at Israel’s Volcani Center – Agricultural Research Organization has not only uncovered a potentially drought-resistant cocoa strain that could combat the ongoing global shortage of cocoa beans but also opened up possibilities for a homegrown boutique chocolate industry in Israel.
Cocoa trees are sensitive to heat and require specific temperature ranges for optimal growth. As such, global cocoa production is currently facing significant challenges due to climate change.
Cocoa is primarily grown in tropical regions by smallholder farmers, many of whom lack resources for modern agricultural practices, leaving their crops susceptible to the whims of the weather.
Some Ghanaian cocoa farmers have reported a 33% decrease in yield due to changing weather patterns associated with climate change.
Climate change effects have also contributed to major price volatility in the cocoa market: cocoa prices have risen by 400% in the last year, partly due to weather-related issues.
Considering the impact that climate change has on the cocoa industry, Graber’s drought-resistant variety could help stabilize production in increasingly unpredictable climate conditions.
While the primary goal of Graber’s research was to develop solutions for global cocoa cultivation challenges, the discovery has also sparked a vision for a uniquely Israeli cocoa ecosystem.
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