Nov 5, 2020
Chocolate is one of the world’s most prized confections, but it also creates lots of food waste. In traditional chocolate production, only the fermented seeds of the cacao fruit are used. The rest of the fruit — the peel, pulp and juice — have been thrown away or used as fertilizer for other cacao trees.
The other parts of the fruit do not have the distinctive taste of chocolate. The juice injects a strong and pleasantly fruity flavor, which is completely natural. The pulp coating the beans, which is where fermentation takes place, creates a delicate sweetener. And the cascara flour can add an herbal taste to bakery items. But all parts of the fruit are very nutrient-dense. Cacao fruit has iron, magnesium, zinc, fiber, potassium, B vitamins, and antioxidants, as well as protein and fiber.
So Barry Callebaut, a chocolate ingredients producer, launched a new brand Caboose Naturals, which is a range of pure cacao fruit ingredients. These ingredients include cacao fruit pulp, juice, concentrate, and cascara — a flour made from the cacao fruit’s peel. It has been working to create products using the entire cacao fruit, 70% of which is wasted in traditional chocolate manufacturing, the company said.
In September 2019, it unveiled its Cacao fruit Experience, a line of food and drink products made from traditionally discarded parts of the fruit. Barry Callebaut also introduced Whole Fruit Chocolate, which is 100% made from the fruit.
Not only are the flavors and nutrients of cacao fruit on-trend with consumers now, but the sustainability aspect also will strike a chord. Upcycling the different parts of cacao fruit give new life to something that would otherwise be thrown away. According to a study by Future Marketing Insights, the food waste business was worth $46.7 billion in 2019. It is expected to grow 5% during the next decade.
Very few companies have ever tried to turn cacao fruit into something other than waste. These ingredients are not only unique but because they come from an industry leader, the amount available truly could make a sizeable impact on reducing waste.
There’s another piece to the sustainability aspect as well. Cacao farmers are paid by the weight of what they produce so these ingredients create more products for them to earn a living.
Barry Callebaut used to pay farmers for large sacks of beans, but now they are also paid for fruit. Currently, the vast majority of cacao farmers live in poverty, with a study from Fairtrade showing the average household income of farmers in the Ivory Coast to be $2,700. Barry Callebaut has pledged to lift 500,000 farmers in its supply chain out of poverty by 2025, and transforming the fruit into ingredients is a good place to begin.