Celleste Bio Claims First Cultured Chocolate-Grade Cocoa Butter

Celleste Bio, an early-stage cocoa tech company funded in part by Mondelez International, today unveiled what it called “a major milestone”: the first chocolate-grade cocoa butter made using plant cell culture technology.

The Israeli company is one of the first to pioneer the use of cell culture technology to produce real cocoa ingredients. According to the company, the product unveiled today at EIT Food's Next Bite Summit in Brussels:

* Is bio-identical to cocoa butter extracted from the bean, both chemically and functionally.

* Yields the same fatty acid profile essential for producing real chocolate.

* Delivers the same sensory qualities, such as melting point, smooth texture and characteristic "snap" of premium chocolate.

* Was designed for scalability, enabling stable, sustainable production independent of agricultural limitations.

* Generates zero waste, using all inputs efficiently throughout the process.

"Our ability to produce real cocoa butter via cell culture proves that science can be used to grow and produce ingredients that mirror nature with integrity and transparency," said Michal Berresi Golomb, CEO of Celleste Bio. "This is a major R&D achievement.”

We had a great story on finding substitutes for cocoa about a month ago. See Substitutes Offsetting Sky-High Cocoa Prices.

Chocolate manufacturers spend about $16 billion on cocoa ingredients a year, with cocoa butter making up nearly half of that, the company said. In 2024 prices increased 400% -- breaking $12,000 per ton -- due to a half billion-ton shortage. Raw cocoa prices for decades hovered between $2,000 and $3,000 per metric ton.

And while prices and crop yields stabilize at certain points, experts say long-term instability is the new normal and technology is the only way to stabilize the future.

As for cost, a spokesperson for Celleste said "price parity is feasible."

"It's important to understand, technology doesn't replace traditional farming. It is an 'insurance policy' against imminent supply chain disruptions and destruction caused by pests, disease, land and water overuse - as well as those that will arise from climate and agricultural instability," said Howard Yano Shapiro, retired chief agriculture officer at Mars Inc. "Celleste Bio is one example of a technology that is getting ahead of a long-term crisis.”

The company hopes to have regulatory approvals, scale production and commercialization in 2027.

Celleste is in the process of building a pilot facility, adjacent to its lab in Israel, to accelerate R&D and scale production of its cocoa ingredients.