Companies Grow Cocoa Beans in Lab to Produce Chocolate

Climate change pressures have led some companies to try growing cocoa in new environments to produce chocolate.

Some of the companies have set up growing operations in laboratories to produce cocoa from cell cultures. Others are experimenting with non-cocoa substances in an effort to create chocolate alternatives.

Higher temperatures worldwide have made it harder to grow cocoa beans in traditional rainforest environments. But worldwide demand remains high for chocolate. So, scientists and businesses are looking to create new products to meet that demand.

California Cultured is a plant cell culture company based in West Sacramento, California. It is growing cocoa from cell cultures inside a lab and plans to start selling its products next year. The process involves putting cocoa bean cells in a container with sugar water. This helps them quickly reproduce and mature.

Alan Perlstein, chief executive of California Cultured, spoke to the Associated Press. He said his company's process can produce a harvest in just one week. This compares to six to eight weeks for a traditional harvest. He said the method also uses a lot less water and labor than harvesting cocoa beans in a field.

Perlstein said he sees the demand for chocolate continuing to increase, while the supply decreases. Using alternative processing methods might be the only way to increase the supply of cocoa without causing environmental harm or greatly increasing costs, he said.

Cocoa trees grow about 20 degrees north and south of the equator in areas with warm weather and a lot of rain. But scientists fear further climate change will dry out the land in such areas.

The worldwide market for chocolate is huge. The chocolate market for candy worldwide reached $238.5 billion in 2023, research website Statista reports. Sales in the United States alone reached more than $25 billion in 2023, the National Confectioners Association said. The trade organization represents the candy industry.

The price of cocoa increased earlier this year because of rising demand and West African crop losses from plant disease and weather changes. West Africa produces most of the world's cocoa.

Carla D. Martin is executive director of the U.S.-based Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute. She told the AP that drops in the world cocoa supply have led some companies to look for ways to replace the ingredient that produces the taste of chocolate.

Planet A Foods is once such company in Planegg, Germany. It believes the taste of mass market chocolate is created not only by the bean itself, but also how it is fermented and cooked.

The company has tested out many ingredients, from olives to seaweed, to find a possible substitute. It is currently using a mix of oats and sunflower seeds as the best tasting chocolate alternative, said company spokesperson Jessica Karch. Planet A Foods calls the product “ChoViva,” which can be used in place of other ingredients in baked goods.

“The idea is not to replace the high quality, 80 percent dark chocolate, but really to have a lot of different products in the mass market,” Karch told the AP.

Similar efforts can be found in Israel. One company there, Celleste Bio, is taking cocoa bean cells and growing them indoors to produce cocoa powder and cocoa butter.

The company's co-founder, Hanne Volpin, said that within a few years the company aims to be able to produce cocoa no matter what the situation is with climate change and disease. Volpin added, “We only have a small field, but eventually, we will have a farm of bioreactors.”

I'm Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

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culture – n. the process of growing things, especially bacteria, for scientific purposes

alternative – n. one of two or more things you can choose between

mature – v. completely grow or develop

ingredient – n. one of the different foods used to make other foods

ferment – v. when a substance is stored and the sugar in it changes into alcohol because of a chemical process