Belgian chocolatier leverages Barry Callebaut’s upcycled cacao fruit Cabosse in chocolate fillings

02 Feb 2022 --- Belgian chocolatier Confiserie Vandenbulcke is among the first to use Barry Callebaut’s upcycled cacao fruit pulp as a filling for its dark chocolates. Cabosse is made from the white pulp surrounding the cocoa bean that is normally disposed of.

On the showfloor of ISM & ProSweets 2022 in Cologne, Germany, Nicolas Degryse, chocolate marketing officer at Vandenbulcke Confiserie speaks to FoodIngredientsFirst about how the ingredient is enjoying an uptake in traditional chocolate houses.

“In traditional chocolate, only the cocoa beans are used. But the cocoa beans are only 30% of the cacao fruit. The other 70% is the juicy white pulp and thick peel that is around the beans,” remarks Degryse.

“Normally those fruit bits are thrown away. We created the filling for our chocolate with this white flesh, which is upcycling a product that is normally disposed of in the garbage.”

“What’s typical about cacao fruit is that it’s very zesty. It's a little bit sweet-sour, so it's an atypical taste for chocolate. Normally chocolate contains sweet fillings, but here we are experimenting with a sweet-sour filling. 

Utilizing the whole fruit
Traditionally, this white cacao fruit pulp is left on the beans to aid with the fermentation process – a crucial step in making chocolate. As the pulp decomposes around the beans, it helps provide yeasts, bacteria and enzymes.

The Cabosse concept is deemed farmer-friendly because the farmers take home a raised income, as they can sell more of the cacao fruit.However, only a small percentage of the pulp in needed for this process, with a large portion being wasted. The underutilized potential of this ingredient is at odds with today’s sustainability-minded consumers. 

The Upcycled Food Association calculates that if all harvested cacao fruit was used to the fullest, it would reduce the same amount of CO2 as planting 3.5 billion trees per year – which is an area bigger than France and Germany combined.

Farmer-friendly and ecological
The word “Cabosse” originates from the French word for cacao pod that is used on plantations in West Africa along the equator.

The Cabosse concept is deemed farmer-friendly because the farmers take home a raised income, as they can sell more of the cacao fruit.

Through Cabosse Naturals’ collaboration with cacao fruit farming communities in Ecuador, the time between harvesting and processing the fresh cacao fruit into ingredients has been shortened to no more than five hours. 

“For the moment our chocolates at Confiserie Vandenbulcke using Cabosse are still in development. The chocolates we have at ISM & ProSweets 2022 are the only samples we have at the moment, so it’s not available yet on the market,” says Degryse.

“We started with it in October with developing the chocolate, its packaging as well as its brand storytelling.”

Degryse adds that Confiserie Vandenbulcke prioritizes eco-friendly packaging for its upcycled product. “We also use ecological packaging that replaces the plastic tray with a recycled paper tray,” says Degryse.

Over the last year, other iterations of cacao fruit chocolate have been hitting the shelves. For instance, Nestlé offers the Incoa bar, which is a 70 percent dark chocolate bar made exclusively with the cacao fruit under the Les Recettes de L’Atelier brand.

In Japan, Nestlé unveiled a KitKat using the dried, powdered cacao pulp as a substitute for traditional sugar.

Barry Callebaut initially revealed the “first expression” of its WholeFruit chocolate range, which is made from 100% pure cacao fruit, last June. The resulting product boasts natural acidity and fruity notes reminiscent of exotic fruits.

By Benjamin Ferrer with additional reporting by Missy Green at ISM & ProSweets 2022