Imagine picking a nice juicy apple - but instead of biting into it, you keep the seeds and throw away the rest.
This is exactly what chocolate makers traditionally do with the fruits of the cacao tree - they use only the beans and throw away the rest.
But scientists in Switzerland have come up with a way to make chocolate using the whole fruit of the cocoa tree, not just the beans, and without using sugar.
Chocolate, developed by scientist Kim Mishra and his team at the prestigious Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, contains the pulp of the fruit, the juice and the endocarp, the inner covering of the seed.
This process has already attracted the attention of sustainable food companies.
They say that traditional chocolate production, which uses only beans, and the rest of the fruit of the cacao tree, shaped like an elongated melon and the size of a pumpkin, full of nutrients, is left to rot in the fields.
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The key to the new chocolate lies in its very sweet juice, which, as Mishra says, has a "distinct fruity taste, a bit like pineapple".
This juice, which contains 14 percent sugar, is distilled to obtain a highly concentrated syrup combined with the pulp, and then, to increase the level of sustainability, it is mixed with dried endocarp to produce a very sweet cocoa jelly.
When jelly is added to fruit seeds, there is no need for sugar in the chocolate making process.
Mishra believes that his invention is the latest of many innovations by Swiss chocolate manufacturers.
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In the 19th century, Rudolf Lindt, of the famous Lindt family of chocolate makers, accidentally invented a key step in chocolate making - an intensive mixing process in which the cocoa mass is kneaded with heavy piston rollers or rotary paddles to achieve a smooth texture and reduce acidity.
The mixer works during the night, and the next morning a mass with a smooth texture and a sweet taste is obtained.
"You have to be innovative to maintain the level of your product or you're just going to make average chocolate," says Mr Mishra.
Misra's partner on this project was KOA, a Swiss startup company that deals with sustainable cocoa cultivation.
The startup's co-founder Anian Schreiber believes that using the whole fruit of the cocoa tree could solve many of the industry's problems, from the rising price of cocoa beans to the endemic poverty of cocoa farmers.
"Instead of fighting over who gets what piece of the pie, you make a bigger pie and make sure everyone benefits," he explains.
"Farmers get significant additional income by using cocoa pulp, but a significant part of the industrial processing is also done in the country of origin.
"Jobs are created, values are created that can be distributed in the country of origin," he adds.
Schreiber says the traditional chocolate production system, in which farmers in Africa or South America sell their cocoa beans to large chocolate manufacturers based in rich countries, is "unsustainable."
This model is being questioned by a new exhibition in Geneva, which explores Switzerland's colonial past.
To those who point out that Switzerland never had colonies, Leticia Pinoya, who deals with the history of chocolate, answers that Swiss mercenaries controlled the colonies of other countries, and that Swiss ship owners transported slaves.
He adds that Geneva in particular has a special connection with some of the most exploitative phases of the chocolate industry.
"Geneva is a trade center, since the 18th century cocoa has been delivered to Geneva and from there to other parts of Switzerland for the purposes of chocolate production.
"Without this trade in colonial goods, Switzerland could never have become a country of chocolate, and cocoa is no different from any other kind of colonial goods.
"All these goods originate from slavery," adds Pinoja.
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Today, the chocolate industry is much more regulated.
Manufacturers are required to monitor the entire supply chain to ensure that there is no child labor in it.
And, from 2025, all chocolates imported into the European Union will have to have an indication that, for the sake of their production, forests were not cleared for the cultivation of the cocoa tree whose fruit is an ingredient in chocolate.
But does that solve all the problems?
Rože Werli, director of the association of Swiss chocolate producers chocosuisse, says there are still cases of child labor and deforestation, especially in Africa.
He fears that some manufacturers, in an attempt to avoid the challenges, simply transfer their production to South America.
"Does this solve the problem in Africa?
“No. I guess it would be better if the responsible companies stay in Africa and help to improve the situation," replies Verley.
That's why he considers the new chocolate developed in Zurich to be "very promising".
"If you use the whole fruit of the cocoa tree, the prices can be better, so it's economically interesting for farmers, and it's also interesting from an ecological point of view," he adds.
The link between chocolate production and the environment is emphasized by Anian Šrajber.
A third of all agricultural products "never end up in our mouths," he emphasizes.
This statistic is even worse in the case of cocoa, if only beans are used from the fruit.
"It's like throwing away an apple and using only its seeds. This is what we are currently doing with cocoa beans," he adds.
Food production entails significant greenhouse gas emissions, so reducing food waste could also help in the fight against climate change.
In this, chocolate, which is a luxury product, may not be a big factor in itself, but both Schreiber and Verley believe that it could be the beginning.
However, the answers to key questions remain in the laboratory.
How much will this new chocolate cost?
And, most important of all, considering that no sugar is added, but only the natural fruit juice containing fruit sugar, what does it really taste like?
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According to the chocolate-loving text writer, the answer to the second question is - surprisingly good.
A rich and sweet taste, with hints of cocoa bitterness that would go perfectly with a cup of coffee after dinner.
The cost of making this kind of chocolate can be a problem because of the power of the sugar industry in the world and the generous subsidies it receives.
"The cheapest food ingredient will always be sugar as long as we subsidize it," explains Kim Mishra.
"You pay $500 or less for a ton of sugar," he adds.
The pulp and juice of the fruit cost more, so the new chocolate would be more expensive for now.
Still, chocolate makers in cacao-growing countries, from Hawaii to Guatemala to Ghana, contacted Mishra to inquire about a new method of making chocolate.
In Switzerland, some of the larger manufacturers, including Lindt, are beginning to use the fruit of the cocoa tree as well as the beans, but none of them has yet taken steps to completely eliminate sugar.
"We need to find bold chocolate makers who want to test the market and are willing to contribute to the production of more sustainable chocolate," says Mishra.
"Then we can change the system," he adds.
Maybe such bold producers will be found in Switzerland, which annually produces 200.000 tons of chocolate, and the value of its industry of this product is estimated at two billion dollars.
Rože Verli from the Chocosuisse Association believes that the future will be more sustainable, but bright.
"I think chocolate will continue to taste fantastic in the future," he claims.
"And I think that in the future the demand will grow, because the number of people in the world is increasing," he says.
And will they eat Swiss chocolate?
"Of course," he replies.
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