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Cargill has entered into a partnership with Kokomodo, an Israeli food-tech company that produces functional cacao ingredients through cellular agriculture.

The collaboration is co-financed by EIT Food’s ‘ProofofConcept’ co-financing instrument, established to help start-ups and corporations jointly validate and scale transformative agri-food solutions.

Kokomodo’s functional cacao ingredients preserve the natural flavour and bioactive properties of cacao while ensuring year-round availability and sustainability. The partnership will explore how cell-based cacao can integrate across multiple categories, such as beverages, dairy and confectionery.

Through the collaboration, Kokomodo’s cacao will be evaluated for functionality, sensory performance and scalability in industrial settings. This is a key step toward building new, resilient supply chains for cacao, a globally loved – but increasingly vulnerable – ingredient.

Major challenges faced by the cacao industry include deforestation, inconsistent yields and labour-related risks. Cell-based production aims to pave the way for more stable and transparent supply chains that reduce environmental impact and create new nutritional opportunities for product developers.

The partnership is already underway and is expected to deliver functional validation results over the coming months.

Tal Govrin, CEO and co-founder of Kokomodo, said: “Our vision has always been to redefine cacao not only for its health benefits and functionality, but as a more sustainable, future-proof ingredient that can empower global food systems year-round”.

“Working alongside one of the most established ingredient players in the world allows us to validate our technology at an industrial scale.”