Chocolate

With global cocoa stocks at record lows this year, the world's largest food company, Nestlé, has developed a novel method to utilise 30% more of the cacao plant. As the planet melts, so does the chocolate industry. Human-caused…
Read More...

Singapore startup Prefer has raised $4.2M in funding to expand its bean-free coffee and cocoa globally, and announced partnerships with Ajinomoto and The Coffee Ferm. Taking its upcycled, fermentation-derived alternatives to coffee and…
Read More...

London-based food tech startup Win-Win has raised £3M ($4M) in funding for its cocoa-free chocolate, and partnered with German bakery giant Martin Braun-Gruppe for two coating products. British cocoa-free chocolate firm Win-Win has…
Read More...

Barry Callebaut, the leading supplier of chocolate to the food industry, has signed a partnership to explore cell culture technology for cocoa alternatives. With the cocoa industry keenly feeling the effects of climate change on their…
Read More...

Japan's largest retailer, Aeon, has debuted a private-label biscuit SKU featuring ChoViva, a cocoa-free chocolate alternative by Planet A Foods. After establishing a foothold in Europe and the US with some of the world's largest…
Read More...

The EU has extended its track record of investing in climate-smart food tech startups amid rising inflation and environmental threats in the region. EIT Food's RisingFoodStars, an EU-backed programme to help agrifood tech startups scale…
Read More...

California Cultured, a food tech startup making cocoa via cellular agriculture, has transitioned to large-scale biomanufacturing in a key breakthrough for the industry. US startup California Cultured has successfully moved from…
Read More...

German hypermarket chain Kaufland has released two sweet treats using Planet A Foods's cocoa-free chocolate alternative, ChoViva. As cocoa prices become untenable for both consumers and businesses, one supermarket is tackling the…
Read More...

Climate change has turned the cocoa industry on its head and farmers are struggling to adapt out of a feeling of fear and despair. Farmers, one of the groups most susceptible to climate change, are more likely to take ineffective…
Read More...

I love coffee. I drink it every day. It’s part of my culture, my mornings, my memories. But behind each cup is a fragile system, and that system is breaking. Coffee and cocoa are daily rituals for many of us, but behind every cup or…
Read More...

US startup Compound Foods has expanded its tech platform to help food companies replace at-risk commodities like coffee and chocolate with bean-free alternatives. Coffee and chocolate may go well together, but things are not going all…
Read More...

As cocoa and coffee prices reach record highs, one startup is turning waste from the world's favourite drink into its favourite sweet treat. What if your hot chocolate was made from coffee waste? As the world's largest producer of…
Read More...

Swiss food tech startup Food Brewer is targeting US regulatory approval for its cell-based chocolate this year, having just raised $5.6M from industry giants Lindt and Puratos. Zurich-based Food Brewer has attracted investment from two…
Read More...

Israel's Pluri has secured a $6.5M investment and entered the cell-based chocolate space with the impending purchase of a majority stake in Rehovot-based Kokomodo. After innovating with cultivated meat and lab-grown coffee, Haifa-based…
Read More...

In a blow for the vegan chocolate industry, Nestlé has taken its KitKat V off shelves in all markets except the UK. Nearly four years after it was first introduced, the vegan KitKat is going off the market amid poor sales, a setback for…
Read More...

A tech investor asked me what the bright areas in food tech are, and here's what I said. This will be my fifth set of food tech predictions. I started in 2021 with alternative proteins, then went broader. Here’s 2024’s list, and 2023…
Read More...

Singaporean food tech startup Prefer is adding cocoa-free chocolate to its beanless portfolio in an effort to fight the economic and planetary costs of the sweet delight. Would you have a mocha made without the coffee and the chocolate…
Read More...

German confectioner Katjes Fassin is battling European competitors like Lindt and Nestlé over its patent for oat milk chocolate. Hydrolysed oat flour might seem like an innocuous ingredient, but it's at the centre of a legal dispute…
Read More...

The world loves chocolate, but the planet itself? Not as much. Industry giants like Mondelēz, Lindt and Barry Callebaut understand that, and are backing startups changing the game with cocoa-free and cell-based alternatives. Chocolate…
Read More...

Copenhagen-based Endless Food Co has raised €1M and teamed up with 7-Eleven Denmark to launch cookies made from its upcycled cocoa-free chocolate. Turning beer waste into a chocolate alternative, Danish startup Endless Food Co has…
Read More...

Israeli startup Celleste Bio has raised $4.5M in a new funding round for its cell-based cocoa, with repeat participation from Mondelēz International. This year has already seen cocoa prices rise to their highest levels ever, as climate…
Read More...