Bühler has announced the winners of its New Chocolate Challenge, an initiative aimed at developing and industrializing alternatives to cocoa. The challenge focused on three innovation routes, including the creation of chocolate-like ingredients from plant-based and upcycled side-streams, the production of chocolate compounds through precision fermentation, and the cultivation of real cocoa cells using cell culture technology. Three winners were selected, including Foreverland Technologies, Green Spot Technologies, and Kawa Project.

The successful startups have already prototyped and tested their creations at Bühler’s Chocolate Application Center in Switzerland to develop a pathway for a viable product from lab to industrial scale. The New Chocolate Challenge was designed to address the rising cocoa prices that threaten the availability and affordability of chocolate. Bühler aims to explore credible, scalable cocoa alternatives and leverage existing assets to help the industry deliver outstanding chocolate experiences with greater resilience and sustainability in the face of cocoa price volatility.