KarunaNews Story

Food scientists in Switzerland have created a way to make chocolate using the entire cocoa fruit, not just the beans - and without sugar. The chocolate was developed at Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology by Kim Mishra and his team. The key lies in its sweet juice, which is distilled to form a highly concentrated syrup, combined with the pulp and then mixed with the dried husk to form a sweet cocoa gel. The gel, added to the cocoa beans, eliminates the need for refined sugar. KOA, a Swiss start-up working in sustainable cocoa growing, believes this could solve many of the cocoa industry’s problems by "making the cake bigger", says co-founder Anian Schreiber. "The farmers get significantly extra income through utilizing cocoa pulp, but also the important industrial processing is happening in the country of origin. Creating jobs, creating value that can be distributed in the country of origin."