You've probably encountered oat milk as a substitute for milk from a cow. But what about oat and sunflower seed chocolate as a substitute for the cocoa-based treat?
With record rainfall in Ghana and Ivory Coast causing shortages of cocoa beans, Planet A Foods sought to create an eco-friendly chocolate alternative, as NPR reported.
The goal is for "ChoViva," a sunflower seed and oat concoction, to address cocoa shortages by subbing in where chocolate plays more of a supporting role. That's in candies like M&Ms, ice cream flavors like chocolate chip, or even cereals like Reese's Puffs. With chocolate companies like Mars reducing chocolate usage in products in response to the shortages, it has a niche.
The genesis of the idea dates back a few years when company co-founder Sara Marquart stumbled upon the threats to the cocoa crop in "Never Out of Season," a book by ecologist Rob Dunn.
Ghana and Ivory Coast produce more than half of the world's cocoa while increasingly facing extreme storms that cause fungal tree infections and rotting cocoa fruits. Last year's highest-ever rainfall caused the price of cocoa to triple as big chocolate manufacturers hoarded beans, per NPR.
Marquart, a food scientist, and her brother co-founded Planet A Foods with plans to develop a substitute that looks, feels, and tastes like chocolate without using cocoa beans. The reason this is conceivable is that the smell and taste we associate with chocolate are actually linked more with the roasting and fermentation of the cocoa bean than the raw crop.
It's taken over three years, and food scientist Anna-Lega Krug told NPR they've altered the recipe "between 700 and 800 times" before landing on ChoViva. Oats and sunflower seeds made the cut, beating over 100 other potential ingredients like apricot pits and potato peels.
The Marquarts said they can produce ChoViva at a comparable price to chocolate and that it's earned rave reviews from customers.
"They were like, 'Wow, this is amazing,'" Marquart said. Backing that up, they've signed contracts with multiple German companies.
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ChoViva's continued success could be a huge win for the planet and consumers, with extreme weather threatening the cocoa crop. Historic rainfall is just one of the impacts the accelerated warming of our planet and seas has in creating "steroids for weather."
Cocoa beans require a "very specific" climate, which is why so much production is concentrated in two countries just north of the equator, as Marquart noted. Meanwhile, she said when it comes to oats, "you can basically grow them everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere or Southern Hemisphere where it's not too hot and not too humid."
Using oats and sunflower seeds also requires less water and facilitates sourcing ingredients locally. That greatly cuts down reliance on planet-heating dirty energy due to lower transportation lift.
Spurred by the success of ChoViva, Planet A isn't sitting on its laurels. Next on the radar is a palm oil alternative, which could provide answers to a similar dilemma.
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