The year 2020 or the year of the pandemic brought back an increased focus on health. Eating healthy and eating right is of the utmost importance, especially in today's time. In keeping with this new approach, the quest to reduce added sugar in confectionery items has become the foremost concern of companies and manufacturers. Nestle has made strides in this respect by discovering a new way of making chocolate. Their latest range of 'Incoa' bar is a unique product that uses cocoa fruit pulp as a healthy and eco-friendly sugar substitute. The usage of cocoa pulp is ingenious since it is a product that is usually discarded.
The 'Incoa' bar will be launched in France and the Netherlands, with other markets in Europe soon to follow. The use of cocoa fruit pulp in making chocolate doesn't just reduce added sugar but also cuts on product waste in chocolate manufacturing. It also has the potential to increase farmer's incomes who can now sell cocoa beans as well as cocoa pulp.
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"This is a big launch, we give it to all the customers who want it and don't limit supplies," Alexander von Maillot, Nestle's global head of confectionery, told Reuters this week. However, these new bars may be up to 50% more costly than other dark chocolates. Von Malliot said that although the high cost meant that cocoa fruit pulp was not suitable for replacing sugar in mainstream products, there may be other uses for cocoa fruit chocolate. For instance, cocoa fruit chocolate may be used in baking.
This new innovation may have significant implications for cocoa farms in West Africa. Commodities specialist Tedd George has reason to believe that the use of cocoa fruit pulp could fuel investment and drive change. "There's an opportunity for new products made from cocoa fruits to also be health products and that changes the game for the value you can get out of them," he said.