Taza Chocolate has never conched its cocoa beans since it started 10 years ago in Somerville, Massachusetts, as the company believes stone grinding is the best way to reduce bitterness of dark chocolate.
Reporting effective approaches to tackle deep-rooted poverty and child labor in the cocoa sector should take precedence over shock headlines, writes ConfectioneryNews’ editor.
Coffee Flour, a firm that started with an idea to take advantage of discarded coffee cherry fruit, is vying for health and nutrition-focused investment partners after recently being selected by the Launch Food Program as a 2017 innovator.
Cocoa farmers in the top producing country Côte D’Ivoire earn around 91 US cents (CFA 568) per day, according to a study by Barry Callebaut and the French Development Agency (AFD).
Cargill has begun trialing the International Cocoa Initiative’s (ICI) child labor monitoring and remediation system in cocoa growing communities in Côte D’Ivoire.
The US chocolate confectionery market is set for a 1% volume decline between 2016 and 2021 as Americans’ GDP per capita is set to fall while the category is caught in an “anti-sugar crossfire”.
European cocoa processing volumes declined in the fourth quarter after processor Euromar became insolvent; the global cocoa market is also expected to enter a supply surplus.
Confectionery manufacturers can expect an increased supply of sugar at reduced prices once the European Union lifts sugar production quotas later this year.
The US unit of cocoa trading and supplying company Transmar Group has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York after the parent company experienced insolvency in Europe.
Cocoa industry insider, Marc Donaldson, voiced that approximately $2bn investment in cocoa sustainability over the past 10 years has achieved “so little.” He suggested consumers should take the sustainability issue on themselves instead of pushing the...
Back in 2014 I interviewed Hans Jöhr, who at the time was corporate head of agriculture at Nestlé. We had a (refreshingly) open discussion about certification schemes. Some of them are “cheating consumers” and “cannot help farmers be better farmers per...
Interview with counsel for six alleged child slaves
A lawyer representing six alleged child slaves working in cocoa in a class action against Nestlé, ADM and Cargill says the ramifications of the case on the chocolate industry could be huge.
The World Cocoa Farmers Organization (WCFO) and The International CoCoa Farmers Organization (ICCFO) have merged and are urging the cocoa and chocolate industry to support efforts to group farmers to ensure traceability.
The legal risk of acknowledging there is child labor and extreme poverty in the chocolate industry’s supply chain is no reason not to act, says Barry Callebaut’s CEO.
Barry Callebaut has pledged to bring 500,000 cocoa farmers out of extreme poverty and eradicate child labor in its supply chain under an initiative to source fully sustainable cocoa by 2025.
Mondelēz International has partnered with Fairtrade to grow the chocolate maker’s own program Cocoa Life to cover all Cadbury products in the UK & Ireland.
Eight-minute podcast: Fairtrade’s new cocoa director
Fairtrade International plans next year to review its minimum price and premium for certified cocoa against a study measuring the drivers of income for farmers.
Barry Callebaut has outpaced the overall global chocolate market in its full-year results as long-serving chairman Andreas Jacobs announces plans to step down.
Consumers appear to becoming more sophisticated and specific about which ingredients or characteristics they find most troublesome in packaged foods and beverages, new research from CivicScience suggests.
Consumer research leads Cargill to believe that it has finally rounded the stevia taste bend, just in time for the revamp of nutrition labeling phases in over the next several years.
Mondelēz International, Mars, Nestlé and Barry Callebaut have joined forces on a community development and education program in Côte d’Ivoire in partnership with the Jacobs Foundation.
Northern Irish chocolatier Cobden and Brown has plans to enter southern neighbor the Republic of Ireland after recently introducing a 100% cocoa bar, according to the company’s founder and CEO, Caroline McArdle.
Yield increases must be coupled with agricultural reforms in origin countries and stronger financing packages to bring cocoa farmers out of poverty, according to the World Cocoa Foundation’s new president.
Chocolate makers can thwart carcinogenic mineral oil contamination in products through regular testing, managing cocoa transportation and adding barrier layers in packaging, say scientists.
The Netherlands is expected to have overtaken Côte d'Ivoire as the leading cocoa processor for the 2015/16 cocoa season, as Europe's cocoa grind reaches a five-year high.
The “war on sugar” has dented demand of sweet snacks as 47% of global consumers look for foods with limited or no added sugar, according to a recent survey by Euromonitor.
Theo Chocolate says one of the greatest challenges it faces as a company committed to a responsible and transparent supply chain is “greenwashing” in the premium chocolate category.
Introducing more cocoa farming to Madagascar is key for a sustainable vanilla market, say Barry Callebaut and Prova on the launch of their new partnership.
More profitable business models are needed for companies committed to healthier products, according to Bayn following the launch of its new Sugar Reduced Community.
Efforts are under way to bring cocoa farmers together under a single voice, but divisions still exist that hinder the chocolate industry’s push to a sustainable cocoa sector, writes ConfectioneryNews editor Oliver Nieburg.
High yielding and disease tolerant cocoa Sacha Gold has been deemed fine flavor by a leading US chocolate company and can become Ecuador’s leading variety, says developer Cimarron Cocoa Estates.
Children between the ages of two and 18 should consume fewer than six teaspoons of added sugars daily, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends.
Barry Callebaut expects farmer income to grow 23% within two years under a $9m partnership with IFC and IDH to support up to 103,000 smallholder cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire by 2020.
Nestlé’s gives ConfectioneryNews a look inside its $31m expanded quality assurance center in Dublin, Ohio, where it is battling the emerging threat of foreign bodies in confections.
The most familiar quality parameter of chocolate – the cocoa solids percentage – has no correlation with flavanol levels, according to a study by the University of Reading.
