Scientists tap the power of fermentation to create chocolate without cocoa beans

MUNICH — A few years ago, food scientist Sara Marquart came across a fact that stopped her in her tracks. Marquart was paging through the book Never Out of Season, by ecologist Rob Dunn. She read that more than half the global supply of cocoa beans comes from two African countries — Ivory Coast and Ghana — and that both countries, which lie just north of the equator, are facing more extreme weather events driven by climate change.

Making a food that looks like chocolate, feels like chocolate and tastes like chocolate — but isn't chocolate — takes time. Anna-Lena Krug, a food scientist at Planet A Foods, estimates that she and her colleagues tweaked the recipe "between 700 and 800 times," before arriving at what they call ChoViva, a chocolate alternative that discards the cocoa bean.

Story by: Rob Schmitz
Photo editor: Virginia Lozano
NPR, 2024