Swiss scientists and chocolatiers have developed a recipe for a healthier, more sustainable chocolate that uses plant waste instead of sugar.
The scientists used not only the beans, but also the pulp and cocoa pods to create a fibrous, sweet jelly that replaces the powdered crystal sugar in traditional chocolate. The technique produces a more nutritious product while using less land and water, according to a report in Nature Food.
“The cacao fruit is basically a pumpkin, and right now we’re just using the seeds.” Said “But there’s a lot more great things about this fruit,” says Kim Mishra, a food technologist at ETH Zurich and lead author of the study.
but, researcher The new method reduced land and water use by 6%, but increased emissions by 12% because it required an additional, energy-intensive drying step. However, they found that greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by scaling up the process and drying the pulp in the sun or using solar panels.