Celleste Bio’s Post

Is it possible to live in a #cacao free world? 🤯🍫 Voyage Foods, is a food innovation company based in San Francisco that might have an alternative ➡️ #plant-based cocoa-free #chocolate? Learn more in the article below.👇🏼 #plantbased #plantbasedfoods #cacaofree #foodtrends

#snsinstitutions #snsdesignthinkers #designthinking 🌱 The Sweet Renaissance: Cane Sugar and the Future of Confectionery 🍬 In the evolving landscape of sweeteners, cane sugar is experiencing a modern renaissance, celebrated for its natural purity, versatility, and rich flavor profile. As consumers increasingly prioritize wellness and transparency in food choices, cane sugar stands out as a timeless ingredient that bridges tradition with today’s health-conscious trends. Why Cane Sugar is Leading Sweet Trends: 🌾 Naturally Sourced: Unlike highly processed alternatives, cane sugar comes directly from sugarcane without the need for complex chemical processes. Unrefined cane sugar retains more of the natural molasses content, offering a subtle, earthy flavor that’s popular in high-end confectionery and baked goods. 🍫 Flavor Enhancer: Artisanal chocolatiers and bakers are turning to cane sugar for its ability to complement and enhance flavors, from chocolate’s rich bitterness to the tang of citrus. It’s being used in craft products where quality and taste are paramount. 💡 Sustainable Choice: When responsibly sourced, cane sugar supports environmentally friendly farming practices. More producers are shifting towards organic, fair-trade, and non-GMO certifications, aligning with global sustainability movements and consumer demand for ethical production. 🌍 Cultural Significance: Cane sugar plays a central role in many traditional sweets across different cultures, from South American dulce de leche to Southeast Asian kueh. This makes it a versatile ingredient that has both global appeal and local significance. The Shift Away from Artificial Sweeteners: Health-conscious consumers are now questioning the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose, which are often linked to various health concerns. In contrast, cane sugar, especially in its raw or minimally processed forms, is seen as a more wholesome option, adding to the ongoing clean-label movement in the food industry. #SweetInnovation #CaneSugar #NaturalIngredients #HealthierChoices #ConfectioneryTrends #SustainableSweetness #ChocolateIndustry

METAROM Group - Upcycled Range ♻ At Haarla Oy, we're constantly striving for more sustainable food chain with our partners - and the smallest ingredients (or biggest if you think about the taste) matter too. Following on from the development work they presented at CFIA 2023 in the form of an eco-designed cocoa shell extract, Metarom is pleased to introduce its full range of upcycled flavors in 2024. This product range was designed in response to the concerns of food and beverage manufacturers, particularly in the biscuit, pastry and confectionary industries, to find natural solutions for producing applications that align with consumer expectations to limit the use of natural resources in the composition of their finished products. "At Metarom, we have always been keen to innovate our processes by using all the resources of the raw materials we use to create added value, and in particular those resources considered worthless. We do this by finding ways to create new extracts from by-products obtained from our in-house extraction processes or from partners’ by-products." Let us know if you're interested in trying out some extracts or NXF made from upcycled cocoa shells, strawberry achenes or oat bran to name a few!

Here in the blog of ingredient brothers we keep a knowledge hub about the food industry. Today's post is about the sweets and the sustainability!

"𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲", 𝗠𝗲𝘇 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀' 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀! Unfortunately, the chocolate industry competes with the beef industry when it comes to deforestation 😖 So how do we enjoy our favorite dessert while being there for the environment? 🤔 The folks at Chicago-based start-up Mez Foods certainly understood the assignment and developed a chocolate... that isn't quite chocolate! 🤩 Primarily made from a desert shrub legume called 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲, Mez Foods combined this more sustainable ingredient with familiar flavors to create a "chocolate" series that sounds absolutely SWEET! 🍫 Read more about their new products on our blog! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://lnkd.in/gkeeWEdp #sustainable #chocolate #MezFoods #foodindustry #innovation #update #news #supplychain #supplier #importer #ingredientbrothers

It’s World Chocolate Day today and I hope everyone who enjoys chocolate is celebrating the occasion with some delicious treats! For most of us, chocolate comes neatly packaged and ready to be picked up from the shelves of a supermarket or convenience store. However, the journey from the cacao bean to chocolate bar is anything but neat or convenient. In fact, many modern day practices in the cocoa industry are outright preposterous. Check the infographic by Visual Capitalist below and you’ll know what I mean. The first step towards achieving better, fairer, and more sustainable chocolate production is informing ourselves about the current state of the industry and what can be done to improve it. Therefore, if chocolate is something that’s dear to you, I invite you to spend some time exploring the intricacies of the cocoa value chain today. Here are five articles I recommend to get started: 📚 First up is an interesting article about the colonial legacy of chocolate and how social anthropologist Carla Martin teaches about it at Harvard. https://lnkd.in/ehp2TNpk 🧑🏾🌾 Coming back to the present day, this Al Jazeera English article explores the disparity between the soaring profits of international chocolate companies and the struggling livelihoods of Ivorian cocoa farmers. https://lnkd.in/ehPdCJmp ♻ Next up – an insightful article by the World Resources Institute on repurposing cacao by-products like husks and pulp for animal feed, biochar, and renewable energy. https://lnkd.in/e4Ri4mPJ 🍫 Buying an ethically produced bar of chocolate is surprisingly difficult, but companies like Tony's Chocolonely and UP-UP Chocolate are working hard to make it easier. Mike Rogerson writes about it for The Conversation UK. https://lnkd.in/e3W3VF8q 🔮 Ending with a bit of speculation about the future of chocolate, this piece by Just Food discusses the potential of using alternative ingredients like carob and barley to reduce dependence on traditional cocoa farming. https://lnkd.in/egcRf9hM Got any other insightful articles, videos, or podcasts on chocolate? Do share them with me in the comments!

Italian based Foreverland Food is the latest cocoa-free producer making a #sustainable alternative to #chocolate. Foreverland’s cocoa-free chocolate products, which they’ve called Freecao contains #carob as the main ingredient, together with a blend of different grains, sugar and label-friendly vegetable fats, equating to a palm-free and no transaturated content. #Italy is the world’s second-largest producer of carob, topped only by #Portugal. It’s known as a nutritional powerhouse and has been used as an alt-chocolate ingredient since the 1970s by health food brands, but Foreverland says it’s using modern tech to transform the “organoleptic properties” of #cocoa. Launched onto the #Australian market, Foreverland’s Freecao M*lk is identical to traditional chocolate in terms of taste, appearance and texture, the brand states. It is suitable for use in industrial facilities and pastry, seamlessly replacing chocolate 1:1 without the need for modifications to equipment or techniques. Foreverland’s chocolate production does not involve precision #fermentation or cellular agriculture methods. Its technological platform includes traditional fermentation alongside other existing processing label-friendly technologies that it meticulously adapts to raw materials, enabling it to create products that do not require #regulatory approval before commercialisation. The chocolate’s sustainability profile comprises 90% less water, using local ingredients with resistance to drought and 80% less CO2 emissions, focusing on local production, no pesticides and no deforestation. According to Riccardo Bottiroli, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Co-Founder of Foreverland and PhD Food scientist collaborating with Wageningen University (#wur), taking part in the FoodSeed acceleration programme has been crucial for the brand, as it focuses on #foodtechnology with an international vision and spirit. They also received support from Eatable Adventures, a partner in the #startup landscape, to lay the groundwork for ambitious goals. Looking forward to tasting it! #foodtech #entrepreneurs #founders #ecosystems #europe #foodtechnology #foodbusiness #foodinnovation #confectionery #ingredients #markets #markettrends