100% Cacao-Free Chocolate for Planet & People's Health
Cacao trees grow in tropical countries, and the rising global demand for cacao has led to massive tropical deforestation to increase the supply of cacao. Over the past decades, we've been losing tropical forests that store more carbon per unit area than any other ecosystem in the world. But that's not all. It takes 34,000 liters of water to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of cocoa butter, 24,000 liters of water to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of cocoa mass, and 17,196 liters of water to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of chocolate. That's more than the amount of water (15,400 liters) needed to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of beef. Cacao farming has also led to soil contamination, labor exploitation, and child trafficking, among other issues. In order to tackle such issues, at Vita we developed a biotechnology for mass production of cocoa butter, liqueur and powder substitutes for a chocolate that is sustainable and conflict-free.
Scientists expect that, over the next decade, the West African countries where 70% of the world's cacao is produced will be too hot and dry to adequately produce cacao. Therefore, at Vita we turned to nature to find innovative processes for producing alternatives to cacao-based chocolate. This allowed us to develop a precision fermentation technology that uses fruit seeds and fruit parts that usually go to waste in the agri-food industry, and turns them into high-quality Vita butter, liqueur, powder and chocolate.
Last but not least, modern chocolate has largely become a vector of processed sugar and unhealthy fats, contributing to public health issues such as the growth of diabetes and obesity, among others. At Vita, we went on to rethink chocolate as a health-promoting food, enabling many more people to enjoy chocolate by giving them positive health effects only and by getting rid of the negative impact of the previous generation of chocolate.