British-based independent confectionery business York Cocoa Works has partnered with a key biotech business, for an innovative launch for a claimed market first retail product made with Koji Cocoa, produced from bean shells, writes Neill Barston.

The fermented cocoa fibre-based product is being delivered in 30g bar format, made with  45% cocoa-origin material and described as being “in the style of a milk chocolate bar”.

As the York company, which has previously played its part in our World Confectionery Conference, noted, It combines cocoa fibre with cocoa butter in place of conventional cocoa mass, giving consumers their first opportunity to taste Koji Cocoa in a finished product.

The launch addresses an increasingly important question for the cocoa industry: how can manufacturers make more food from each cocoa crop while retaining the taste, colour and enjoyment consumers expect?

Moreover, as the business added, most conventional chocolate-making focuses on the cocoa bean, while other parts of the crop—including the fibrous shell surrounding the bean—remain underused as food ingredients. Fermtech, and Oxford-based food and sustainability focused biotech company, applies koji fermentation, a technique used for centuries in foods including miso and soy sauce, to transform cocoa bean shell fibre into Koji Cocoa.

The result is a cocoa ingredient designed to help manufacturers extend the usable yield of the crops they already source, add cocoa fibre to products and reduce exposure to volatile cocoa prices.

Furthermore, the launch comes as cocoa producers and manufacturers face mounting pressure from climate change, crop disease, unpredictable weather and historically volatile prices. By enabling more of the existing crop to be used in food, Koji Cocoa offers a complementary source of cocoa flavour and colour without requiring additional cocoa cultivation.

York Cocoa Works has introduced the bar at York Food & Drink Festival late September, where founder and chocolatier Sophie Jewett gave the talk: “What happens to 92% of the cocoa pod?”, exploring how innovation can help create more value from the cocoa crop and support a more resilient and responsible cocoa industry.

She commented: “As chocolate makers, we spend a lot of time thinking about the cocoa bean, but the bean represents only a small part of the cocoa pod. If we are serious about building a more responsible cocoa industry, we also need to ask what happens to everything else.

“Only less than 8% of the Cocoa fruit is used in conventional chocolate making, with increasing challenges for cocoa growing communities we’re exploring more ways we can celebrate and unlock the value of the whole cocoa tree and our own cocoa shell output,” adding that the bar offered the chance to explore just how the use of such ingredients can make a difference.

In addition, Sophie added that it had combined its own expertise with Fermtech’s approach to handling fermentation to make full use of cocoa crops at a time of increasingly pressured resources.