The alt cocoa boom: Big Chocolate’s new obsession

Alt cocoa boom – overview

• Volatile cocoa prices and supply shortages are boosting alternative cocoa ingredients
• Climate change, disease and ageing trees threaten cocoa production worldwide today
• Start-ups are scaling cocoa-free ingredients as costs approach parity with cocoa
• Nestlé, Mars, Mondelēz and Lindt are exploring alternative cocoa strategies for resilience
• Taste and consumer acceptance remain key adoption challenges, despite rapid growth

The alt cocoa boom has begun.

What started out as a somewhat controversial alternative to cocoa, used by only a handful of manufacturers, has rapidly evolved into one of the food industry’s most closely watched ingredient categories.

Why?

Because as much as many people across the globe love cocoa, it’s future has grown increasingly uncertain.

The rise of cocoa alternatives

The last five years has seen the perfect storm of climate change, crop disease, ageing trees, and years of underinvestment, put pressure on global cocoa supplies.

This has been felt most heavily in the world’s two largest producing nations – Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – where yields have failed, leading to a global supply crunch that sent cocoa prices to record highs and left manufacturers scrambling to find solutions to offset escalating costs.

One such solution is, of course, cocoa alternatives. Some manufacturers are working with ingredients like sunflower seeds, which are fermented and roasted to create chocolate-like flavours. Others are developing ingredients from carob, grape seeds, and fava beans. Meanwhile, a growing number of start-ups are exploring cultivated cocoa, producing cocoa ingredients directly from plant cells rather than cocoa farms.

And while few expect them to replace cocoa altogether, growing numbers believe they could become an important part of the industry’s toolkit, helping build resilience in a market where uncertainty increasingly looks like the new normal.

The good news is industry analysts believe suppliers are already proving their ability to produce high-quality alternatives at scale.

“Companies like Planet A Foods, Voyage Foods, Nukoko, and Foreverland have demonstrated that these ingredients can deliver chocolate-like flavour, while offering significantly lower environmental footprints and reduced dependence on cocoa supply,” says Gauri Girish Gadgil, research associate at industry analysts MarketsandMarkets.

What’s more, one of the biggest barriers to adoption – cost – is fast becoming obsolete, as cocoa prices increase and alt prices drop, putting price parity firmly on the horizon.

“The unprecedented increase in cocoa prices has significantly narrowed the economic gap between conventional and alternative cocoa ingredients,” says Gadgil. “The timing of cost parity is likely to depend on multiple factors, including continued advancements in manufacturing technologies, improvements in production efficiency, economies of scale, regulatory developments, and future movements in conventional cocoa prices.”

And, if proof were needed that the industry is paying attention to the rise of cocoa alternatives, you need only look to the world’s biggest confectionery companies.

Majors enter the alt space

For years, cocoa alternatives sat on the fringes of the confectionery sector, championed by food tech start-ups and smaller brands. Then cocoa prices skyrocketed, supply concerns grew harder to ignore, and the industry’s biggest players began taking notice. Now, they’re getting involved, though approaches differ.

Some are investing in cocoa-free alternatives, others are backing cultivated cocoa technologies, while many continue to focus on making conventional cocoa supply chains more resilient through sustainability and regenerative agriculture programmes.

Nestlé emerged as one of the earliest alt cocoa adopters, already incorporating Planet A Foods’ cocoa-free ingredient ChoViva into one of its products. Meanwhile, Barry Callebaut has partnered with Planet A Foods to help scale the ingredient globally.

At the same time Mars, Inc., Mondelēz International, and Lindt & Sprüngli, are exploring alternative cocoa technologies and ingredients, even as they continue to invest heavily in conventional cocoa sourcing programmes.

The diversity of approaches highlights just how broad the industry’s search has become. Rather than betting on a single successor to cocoa, manufacturers are exploring multiple technologies that could reduce supply chain risk while maintaining flavour, texture and functionality.

Although there are two notable exceptions – Ferrero Group and The Hershey Company.

Both companies have so far remained on the sidelines of the alternative cocoa movement, choosing instead to focus their efforts on strengthening conventional cocoa supply chains through sourcing, sustainability, and farmer support programmes. Though, if cocoa market volatility persists, we may see a strategy shift.

Alt cocoa challenges

Despite the excitement, and widespread adoption of cocoa alternatives, significant challenges remain – taste being one of the biggest.

Taste continues to be a significant barrier. Cocoa contains hundreds of flavour compounds that contribute to chocolate’s distinctive sensory profile, making it notoriously difficult to replicate. While alternative ingredients have improved dramatically in recent years, many still struggle to achieve an exact match across all applications.

What’s more, consumer perception continues to slow progress. Chocolate is one of the world’s most loved and recognisable foods, and some shoppers remain sceptical of products made without cocoa.

Questions around labelling, transparency and marketing will therefore play a crucial role in determining how quickly alternative ingredients gain mainstream acceptance.

Cocoa and alt cocoa

The future of cocoa alternatives will largely be dictated by the future of cocoa.

If cocoa harvests recover, supplies stabilise, and prices come down, adoption will be slower. It may even cease entirely.

But if climate pressures, disease outbreaks, and supply shortages continue to disrupt production, manufacturers are likely to accelerate their push for alternatives.