Lindt-Backed Food Brewer Brings Cocoa-Free Chocolate to SBB Trains Across Switzerland

Swiss alternative chocolate startup Food Brewer has debuted Yodel Bites, a cocoa-free chocolate bar made from yellow pea byproducts, on all SBB trains with dining cars across the country.

Food Brewer, a Swiss food tech startup backed by confectionery giant Lindt, has unveiled a cocoa-free chocolate bar that uses byproducts from the yellow pea industry.

The firm made its name on cell-based cocoa, but as it navigates the complex world of regulatory approvals, it has since expanded into using other crops to replicate the ingredient in climate-friendly chocolate and coffee formulations.

Its new consumer product, Yodel Bites, is the result of a collaboration with private-label producer Stella Bernrain, and is available on all SBB trains across Switzerland through its on-board catering service, Elvetino.

“We always want to surprise our guests with new offerings. The Yodel Bites fit perfectly with this ambition,” said Renato Citrini, head of offer and experience at Elvetino.

Giving yellow pea sidestreams a second life

Founded in 2021 by Schaub, Yannick Senn, Géraldine Senn, Corinne John, Stefan Bingisser, and Klaus Kienl, Food Brewer uses legumes and cocoa butter equivalents to replace the key components of chocolate.

It chose yellow peas as the star ingredient for its cocoa-free chocolate because they grow all year round and are a local crop worldwide, support healthy soils, are efficiently harvested through modern farming techniques, offer a short and stable supply chain, and have low climate dependency.

The startup uses a byproduct of this industry to give an “overlooked part” of yellow peas a second life. It transforms this ingredient through a combination of fermentation, roasting, and tailored processing techniques.

These create rich, nutty, roasty and chocolate-like flavours. And when combined with fats and sugar, the ingredient is turned into a smooth liquor with the taste, texture and quality consumers expect from chocolate.

In Yodel Bites, Food Brewer pairs yellow peas with carob, a legume that has been used as a chocolate alternative for decades. These are mixed with palm and shea fats, sugar, whole milk powder, roasted hazelnut pieces, sunflower lecithin, and natural flavours, offering an alternative with 30% less sugar than conventional milk chocolate.

Besides SBB trains, the innovation is also available at Stella Bernrain stores in Kreuzlingen and Giubiasco, and online on Food Brewer’s website.

“As one of the best-known brands in Switzerland, SBB offers the ideal platform to introduce a new Swiss original to travelers throughout the country,” said Food Brewer CEO Christian Schaub.

Food Brewer continues work on cell-based chocolate

Food Brewer is one of several startups working with alternative cocoa solutions to help the industry withstand the impact of climate change. In 2024, global cocoa stocks fell to a decade low, and its hit an all-time high. And extreme weather events are wiping out harvests and pushing a third of the world’s cocoa trees towards extinction.

There’s a causal relationship here. Dark chocolate production itself generates more emissions than all other foods bar beef, and the cocoa industry is directly responsible for 94% and 80% of deforestation in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, the two largest producers of the crop.

Food Brewer offers milk, vegan and dark couverture alternatives, which can either be blended with conventional chocolate or replace it entirely. It also makes cost-effective cocoa powder substitutes for varying levels of inclusion.

In blind taste tests conducted by the Bern University of Applied Sciences, consumers reacted positively to its cocoa-free chocolate, with some even preferring it over conventional options. The acceptance remained stable – and in some cases, increased – over several weeks.

The startup continues to work on its cell-based cocoa and coffee innovations, which utilise plant cell culture to grow these beans in bioreactors. For the former, it extracts cells from a cocoa bean and places them in a nutrient gel to regenerate and form a callus. Two weeks in, it selects cells to put in the fermenters with a nutrient-rich solution. Once the cells reach the desired biomass quantity, they’re harvested, dried and roasted.

Last year, Food Brewer successfully scaled up its process to 6,000 litres, allowing it to run fully automated processes and embark on large-scale collaborations. It also raised $5.6M from investors including Lindt & Sprüngli, Sparkalis (the VC arm of bakery and confectionery group Puratos), and chocolate maker Felchlin (with whom it’s testing cell-based cocoa powder for chocolates). It’s now eyeing regulatory approval in the US.

Several alternative chocolate startups – including Planet A Foods, Voyage Foods, and Celleste Bio – have secured major investments and partnerships from Big Chocolate companies like Nestlé, Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Mondelēz International, Mars, Lindt, Döhler, and Cargill.