The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

Celleste Bio has unveiled what it describes as the world’s first milk chocolate bars made with real cocoa butter produced using cell suspension culture technology.

The cocoa butter was used by Mondelēz International, Celleste’s strategic partner, to produce nearly a dozen chocolate bars that met the company’s product integrity and consumption standards.

According to Celleste, the milestone shows its cell-cultured ingredients are bio-identical to conventionally grown cocoa, delivering the same texture, melt profile and sensory experience. The company said this validates the next phase of scaling production to market-ready volumes within the next two years.

Celleste, founded in 2022, aims to support a more sustainable future for the chocolate industry amid supply chain pressures including climate change, disease, traceability challenges and geopolitical instability.

CEO Michal Beressi Golomb said: "In three years we've made unprecedented progress to meet this formidable scientific challenge. We've validated our ingredients as drop-in replacements, created an operational R&D pilot facility to scale up our volumes and now proven our cocoa butter performs identically to conventional cocoa, clearing the next phase to commercial scale."

The company also plans to use AI-based computational modelling to tailor cocoa butter characteristics, such as melting points and flavour profiles, to customer specifications, enabling manufacturers to expand product innovation.

Chief technical and scientific officer Hanne Volpin highlighted the environmental upside of using cell cultured technology to supplement traditional growing methods: "Building a resilient supply chain means being able to produce at commercial volumes while offsetting disruptions caused by climate change, deforestation and resource scarcity."

"We are on track to produce 1 ton of cocoa butter annually in a 1,000-litre bioreactor from a single bean – which would otherwise require about a hectare of cocoa trees. To that end, we've curated a very robust bank of multiple cocoa bean varietals we can use to grow, test and scale material without ever having to cut down a single tree in the rainforest."

To date, Celleste Bio has raised $5.6 million in funding, including investment from Mondelēz International, Supply Change Capital, Trendlines, Barrel Ventures and non-dilutive grants.