Cocoa-Free Alternatives Emerge as Chocolate Market Faces Uncertainty

The chocolate industry is getting a shake-up with cocoa-free alternatives hitting supermarket shelves. Record high prices and a volatile supply market have seen some confectionery manufacturers explore technologies that create lab-grown, fermented and upcycled "cocoa". The move has been criticised by the industry in Australia and overseas, which has argued chocolate needs to contain cocoa from the beans of the cacao tree. A global report released by Rabobank found manufacturers were looking to diversify their ingredient options after cocoa prices surged to unprecedented highs. "We saw cocoa prices reach a record high of $11,000 US per ton last year, so about four or five times higher than the historical average," Rabobank analyst Paul Joules said. News that the big chocolate makers are considering alternatives to traditional cocoa has been met with criticism from other producers who are passionate about traditional chocolate. Cadbury 'exploring innovations' As the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, Cadbury is synonymous with chocolate. A spokesperson for Cadbury's parent company, Mondelez International, told the ABC it was closely monitoring and selectively exploring innovations emerging across the food system. They said this included investigating ways to upcycle parts of the cacao fruit that would otherwise go to waste, alongside early-stage technologies that could complement traditional cocoa supply. Sixty per cent of the world's cocoa is produced in West Africa, a region Mr Joules said had seen supply significantly impacted by tree disease and bad weather. He said that had prompted major manufacturers to look at two ways of producing cocoa. "Lab-grown cocoa is still in its infancy, but the other alternative is the fermentation process, so transforming plant-based inputs like oats, sunflower seeds, barley — and converting into chocolate-like ingredients," he said. But Mr Joules warned cocoa-free chocolate did not necessarily mean cheaper prices. "You've also got the costs of the other ingredients — milk, palm oil, sugar, labour costs, the cost of energy," he said. "To take out one ingredient and replace it with another may not necessarily have a huge impact on the overall pricing." Nestlé, the world's largest, most diversified food and beverages company, recently had to rename some of their products in the UK because they failed to meet the minimum threshold of cocoa content, and could no longer be called chocolate. A spokesperson for the company told the ABC it continues to monitor new trends but believes cocoa remains essential to real chocolate. Industry caution Owner of Southern Forests Chocolate in Western Australia's South West Kate Frost said she and her husband would only consider alternatives in the event of a "global cocoa outage". The chocolate maker said they sourced beans from several countries, and recent market volatility had opened opportunities to experiment with cocoa from different regions. "I'm quite happy trialling beans from different countries and exploring their unique flavour profiles — we're currently experimenting with beans from Ecuador and Belize," she said. Mr Joules said fermented cocoa was the most promising alternative that had already landed in some retailers, but taste was a drawback. "[Chocolate manufacturers] are struggling to some degree to get it to taste exactly like your typical chocolate bar, there's reports that it can have a bit more of a bitter taste if they haven't quite got the fermentation process right," he said. Founder of Cacao Fiji Arif Kahn said the issue of taste with fermented cocoa was what gave him hope. "You cannot replace the taste of cocoa growing in the Fiji islands and the taste impacted by the terroir and that is a key difference," he said. Consumers 'looking for purity' Co-founder of Sydney-based social enterprise South Pacific Cacao Jessica Pedemont said the venture was all about supporting Australia's Pacific neighbours. Ms Pedemont is also the co-founder of Chocolate Artisan, and she said she sourced cacao from Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. "I have no doubt [my chocolate is] more costly than what's in a supermarket but they're not the same," she said. Ms Pedemont said she would rather consume chocolate that contained cocoa than a lab-grown substance that had "never seen the light of day", and believed consumers wanted the same. "They're looking for purity, they're looking for organic, they're looking for fair trade, they're looking for good practice, they're looking for freshness, they want to identify everything on the packaging, authenticity, traceability," she said.