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Food tech startup Celleste Bio says it has become the first company to produce cell-cultivated cocoa butter, a major breakthrough for an industry grappling with soaring chocolate prices.
The company said in a statement that Celleste's lab-grown cocoa butter is "biologically identical to cocoa butter extracted from beans," offering the same texture and sensory qualities as premium chocolate.
Celleste has raised $15 million to date, including funding from snack giant Mondelēz International, which has served as a strategy and design partner. The startup is building a pilot facility to scale up production of sustainable chocolate ingredients.
High cocoa costs have pushed Hershey and other major confectionery companies to raise chocolate prices and explore potential alternatives, including lab-grown substitutes.
After chocolate prices hit a record high in late 2024, they are now falling as supply recovers thanks to improved weather in Africa and expanding production in Ecuador. Even so, climate change, crop disease and ageing trees still pose long-term risks to supply, according to the International Cocoa Organization.
To provide some stability, more companies are offering alternatives made from ingredients such as wheat or soybeans, which can be used to replace a certain proportion of cocoa in the chocolate-making process. Ardent Mills, a joint venture between Cargill, Conagra and CHS, has launched a wheat-based solution for the industrial baking sector that can replace up to 25% of the cocoa powder in cakes, brownies and biscuits.
Celleste aims to go further by offering a substitute that is chemically and functionally identical to chocolate. The technology is not intended to replace traditional farming, but rather to act as an "insurance policy" against future disruptions, said Howard Yana Shapiro, retired chief agricultural officer at Mars, in a statement.
Cocoa butter is the core fat used in chocolate-making and is essential to creating the richness and melt-in-the-mouth sensation of confectionery. Chocolate manufacturers spend around $16 billion on cocoa ingredients annually, Celleste said, with cocoa butter accounting for nearly half of that total.
"Cocoa butter is the most important, most expensive, and most resource-intensive ingredient in chocolate, and if we've learned anything from the past year, it's that crop-supplementing solutions are critical," Yana Shapiro said.
Companies have sought to expand cocoa production through investment or in-house research. Nestlé, for instance, said it has developed a process to use up to 30% more of the cocoa fruit in chocolate production, reducing waste.
Source: Food Dive