Celleste Bio grows lab-grown cocoa butter for 2027 supermarket launch
Updated
Updated · The Chemical Engineer · May 5
Celleste Bio grows lab-grown cocoa butter for 2027 supermarket launch
12 articles · Updated · The Chemical Engineer · May 5
The Mondelez-backed Israeli startup said chocolate prices have risen 15% in a year and plans production of one tonne annually in a 1,000-litre bioreactor from a single bean.
Its process uses cocoa bean cells fed sugars and nutrients in tanks, with the company saying two beans could yield 2 tonnes of cocoa butter a year.
The effort reflects wider foodtech attempts to stabilise cocoa supplies as climate disruption, ageing trees and slow replanting make conventional production more volatile and land-intensive.
As labs begin to replace farms, who will truly profit from the chocolate revolution?
Is lab-grown cocoa a climate solution or a new energy-intensive industrial problem?
Celleste Bio and the $100 Billion Chocolate Crisis: How Lab-Grown Cocoa Butter Could Transform the Industry by 2027
Overview
The global chocolate industry is facing major instability due to climate change, extreme weather, and crop diseases, which have caused severe environmental degradation in key cocoa-producing regions like Ivory Coast and Ghana. Since 1960, these areas have lost over 85% of their forest cover, leading to plummeting cocoa stocks and record-high prices in 2024. Experts warn that a third of the world’s cocoa trees could disappear by 2050. Chocolate production also contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and tropical deforestation, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable solutions to secure the future of chocolate.