Making chocolate better and bettering the farmers along the way
Improving production protocols.
I wrote of the benefits derived from ingesting chocolate, in my previous newsletter: Making Memories
“ISOLATION STRESS EFFECT on MEMORY— DARK CHOCOLATE to the RESCUE
All alone under Lockdowns and Quarantines? What is your go to food source for solace? Dark Chocolate, of course. And now there is science to back you up on that. It can reverse bad brain effects and … no weight gain!”
Cacao, is a medicinal wonder. It contains many different active compounds which can evoke pharmacological effects within the body. For centuries, chocolate has been used as a medicine to treat a long list of diseases.
The botanical name of cacao tree is Theobroma cacao, which means ‘God Food.’ These cacao trees grow under the rainforest canopy trees. This plant produces large, yellow, red or purple pod-like fruits, each containing 20–60 beans surrounded by a sticky, sweet-tart white pulp. The seeds are the ‘beans’ that are traditionally used as the source to make chocolate. Usually, all the rest of the pod is wasted and composted. But the cocao fruit has underutilized ingredients that can add value to its product life cycle, while improving the nutritional value of the chocolate.
Researchers have now come up with a better way to produce our treasured chocolate — using the whole fruit pod. Besides making it healthier, this method also helps the farmer generate income and improve their soil.
Chocolate production faces nutritional, environmental and socio-economic challenges present in the conventional cocoa value chain. Here we developed an approach that addresses these challenges by repurposing the often-discarded pectin-rich cocoa pod endocarp and converting it into a gel. This is done using cocoa pulp juice concentrate to replace traditional sugar from sugar beets. Although swelling of fibres, proteins and starches can limit gel incorporation, our proposed chocolate formulation contains up to 20 wt% gel. It also has comparable sweet taste as traditional chocolate while offering improved nutritional value with higher fibre and reduced saturated fatty acid content. A cradle-to-factory life cycle assessment shows that large-scale production of this chocolate could reduce land use and global warming potential compared with average European dark chocolate production. The process also provides opportunities for diversification of farmers’ income and technology transfer, offering potential socio-economic benefits for cocoa-producing regions. - K Mishra, et al.
The researchers were able to use the flesh and parts of the fruit shell [the endocarp] for their cocoa-fruit chocolate recipe. They process it into powder, then mix it together with part of the pulp to form the ‘cocoa gel.’ This substance is extremely sweet, allowing it to replace the added sugar used in the traditional method. They increased the fiber content by ~ 20% while reducing the saturated fat percentage by ~ 30%.
Farmers can sell their cacao beans, but also dry out the pulp juice and the endocarp, grind it into a powder and sell that, too. Only the shell remains, used as fuel or for composting material enriching their soil.
Here is good movie showing how best to make and celebrate Le Chocolat …!
https://www.amazon.com/Chocolat-Johnny-Depp/dp/B0CH4XGZN4/
[and Happy Birthday to Johnny Depp.]
REFERENCES
TL Dillinger et al. Food of the gods: cure for humanity? A cultural history of the medicinal and ritual use of chocolate. J Nutr. 2000 Aug;130(8S Suppl):2057S-72S. doi: 10.1093/jn/130.8.2057S
K Mishra, et al. Valorization of cocoa pod side streams improves nutritional and sustainability aspects of chocolate, Nature Food (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43016-024-00967-2
[btw, Use of “cacao” versus “cocoa” on chocolate products is inconsistent and varies by brand, so don’t assume one is better or different than another.]
Hi Laura.
Though dark chocolate is popular over here in Japan, the science differentiating dark chocolate is new to me. But I found another point of reference. That movie was one I used here in Japan for deconstruction in Comparative Culture classes 😃. The students enjoyed it as much as I did, and gave great group-storyboard presentations ("kami-shibai" in Japanese).
Cheers