More than beans: Nestle recycles cocoa fruit waste to replace sugar in chocolate (updated)
18/03/2021 18:34
* Nestle to launch cocoa fruit chocolate in supermarkets
* Barry Callebaut, Lindt, Mondelez also launched products
* Cocoa fruit appeals to health-conscious consumers
* Trend could help reduce sugar in products, food waste
(Adds comments from cocoa farmers)
By Silke Koltrowitz
ZURICH, March 18 (Reuters) - As confectionery groups
scramble to reduce added sugar, chocolate sweetened with cocoa
fruit pulp is about to hit supermarket shelves with food giant
Nestle NESN.S ready to launch its "Incoa" bar.
Using cocoa fruit pulp, which is normally discarded, to
flavour products reduces sugar and cuts food waste while
boosting the income of cocoa farmers who can "upcycle" their
cocoa by selling both the pulp and the beans.
That ticks several boxes with health- and
environmentally-conscious consumers.
"This is a big launch, we give it to all the customers who
want it and don't limit supplies," Alexander von Maillot,
Nestle's global head of confectionery, told Reuters this week.
The company is launching Incoa, which has no added sugar, in
supermarkets in France and the Netherlands with other European
markets to follow.
Nestle is sourcing the raw material from cocoa farms in
Brazil, but also working with partners in West Africa to see if
pulp production could work there. Von Maillot said cocoa farmers
could boost their income by 20-40% if they also sold the pulp.
Lamine Keita, a cocoa farmer in Duekoue, Ivory Coast, said
he hadn't yet been asked to sell cocoa fruit pulp. "If we can
sell more than the beans to increase our income, that's all we
can ask for because beans alone are not enough to get us out of
poverty," he said.
Jerome Koffi, who cultivates cocoa on four hectares of land
in Soubre, also said he'd gladly sell more, but at the moment
there was only demand for beans.
Fruit pulp doesn't come cheap - Incoa bars on Dutch retailer
Albert Heijn's website cost about 50% more than other dark
chocolates. But Von Maillot said although the cost meant pulp
was not suitable for replacing sugar in mainstream products,
there may be other uses for cocoa fruit chocolate, for example
in baking.
UPCYCLING TREND
Lindt & Spruengli LISN.S and Germany's Ritter Sport have
also launched limited editions of cocoa fruit chocolate which
sold out quickly. Both said they planned to launch the products
on a larger scale once enough cocoa fruit was available.
Swiss chocolate maker Felchlin's cocoa fruit preparation
found its way into macarons and truffles that high-end
chocolatier Spruengli - unrelated to Lindt - called a "world
novelty".
Lindt and Felchlin source cocoa fruit pulp from
Swiss-Ghanaian startup Koa https://koa-impact.com, which uses
solar-powered mobile units to process fresh pulp from 1,600
small farmers. Koa is able to process 250 tonnes a year but
wants increase its capacity 10 fold within the next two years.
Industry major Barry Callebaut BARN.S , meanwhile, is
getting ready to supply its WholeFruit Chocolate to chefs and
artisans. It has also set up a dedicated brand, Cabosse
Naturals, to sell cocoa fruit ingredients to customers like
Mondelez International MDLZ.O to use in fruity snacks.
The Upcycled Food Association said commercialising cocoa
fruit worldwide could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more
than 20 million tonnes per year. It defines "upcycling" as using
food ingredients that humans wouldn't consume, with verifiable
supply chains and a positive environmental impact.
Brigette Wolf, head of Mondelez's SnackFutures, said
upcycling appealed to those who want to "make an impact" with
their food choices.
The company plans to have three varieties of CaPao
Cacaofruit Fruit Bites on sale this year, in more than 2,000
stores by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
AFRICAN TASTES
Commodities specialist Tedd George said extracting
additional value from the crop could boost West Africa's cocoa
sector because current incentives were only focused on growing
and selling more beans.
"There's an opportunity for new products made from cocoa
fruits to also be health products and that changes the game for
the value you can get out of them," he said, citing health
benefits associated with dark chocolate.
Nestle has been repositioning itself as a health and
wellbeing company, reducing sugar in its products, and has also
set sustainability targets including for cocoa.
George said the launch of cocoa fruit products didn't
address fundamental issues like child labour or deforestation,
but could fuel investment and drive change in cocoa-producing
communities.
He said companies should also develop cocoa products for
African tastes. "If there was also local demand for cocoa, that
would boost farmers' pricing power."
(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz, additional reporting by Maytaal
Angel in London and Ange Aboa in Abidjan; Editing by Kirsten
Donovan)
((silke.koltrowitz@thomsonreuters.com; +41 41 528 3638;))