Cell-based cocoa companies say bioreactor-grown ingredients could help stabilize chocolate supplies amid soaring cocoa prices, but critics warn that long-term safety, contamination risks and regulatory oversight remain unresolved.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Chocolate made from cocoa cells grown in laboratory bioreactors is moving closer to the consumer market, as food technology companies promote cell-based cocoa as a potential answer to rising prices, crop disease and unstable global supply chains.
The emerging industry is drawing major investment and partnerships from established food companies, but it is also raising questions from scientists, consumer advocates and critics who say the products lack the long history of human consumption associated with conventional cocoa.
In April 2026, Israeli startup Celleste Bio announced what it described as the first milk chocolate bars made with cocoa butter produced through cell suspension culture technology. The company partnered with Mondelēz International, the global snack company behind Oreo, Cadbury and Toblerone, to produce nearly a dozen chocolate bars using cocoa butter derived from cells taken from a single cocoa bean.
California Cultured, a separate company based in California, is preparing to begin commercial production of cell-based cocoa powder by early 2027. The company has already formed partnerships with Belgian ingredients supplier Puratos and Meiji, Japan’s largest chocolate company.
The companies are advancing their products during a period of severe pressure on the conventional cocoa market. Cocoa prices climbed to $12,000 per tonne in early 2025, the highest level in decades, as climate change, crop disease and erratic weather disrupted production in West Africa, where about 70% of the world’s cocoa is grown.
Between 2023 and 2025, cocoa production fell by as much as 40%. Wageningen University has projected that as much as half of cocoa-growing areas in Ivory Coast could be lost by 2060.
Cell-based cocoa companies say their technology could provide a more stable source of cocoa ingredients without depending on vulnerable growing regions.
Celleste Bio’s process starts with cells taken from one cocoa bean. Those cells are placed in bioreactors containing water, sugar and vitamins. The company says one cocoa bean could generate up to a ton of cocoa butter per year, roughly equal to the output of about one hectare of cocoa trees.
California Cultured uses a similar approach, growing plant cells in bioreactors before drying and milling them into cocoa powder. Companies in the sector describe the resulting ingredients as “bio-identical” to conventional cocoa.
Some scientists and critics disagree with that framing.
“Lab-grown cocoa is not the same as real cocoa,” said biologist Heidi Wichmann, a member of Make Europe Healthy Again’s advisory committee.
Wichmann said cocoa is the result of millions of years of evolution and complex ecological interactions that cannot be fully duplicated in a controlled tank.
“We should not confuse a technological imitation with the living original,” she said.
Regulation is another point of dispute.
California Cultured has self-affirmed its cell-based cocoa powder as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. The designation allows companies to introduce ingredients into food without going through the Food and Drug Administration’s pre-market approval process.
Alexis Baden-Mayer, research director at the Organic Consumers Association, criticized the GRAS system as “a problem of the exception swallowing the rule.”
The designation was originally intended for ingredients already widely recognized as safe before 1958, but critics say it has expanded to include genetically engineered foods and other novel products.
After U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called on the FDA in 2025 to eliminate the GRAS loophole, California Cultured voluntarily submitted a GRAS notice seeking a “no questions” letter from the agency. Baden-Mayer said such a letter does not mean the FDA has independently verified the company’s safety claims.
Children’s Health Defense Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski said the public still lacks enough information to judge the risks.
“Is it safe? The answer is a resounding shoulder shrug,” Jablonowski said.
Contamination also remains a concern in cell culture production.
Corning Life Sciences, a supplier to the cell culture industry, has said that “no cell culture problem is as universal as that of culture loss due to contamination.” The company has described eliminating contaminants as “an impractical, if not impossible, dream.”
Potential contaminants include bacteria, molds, yeasts, viruses, airborne particles and chemical residues.
A 2023 Wired investigation into cultivated meat company Upside Foods cited employees who said contamination problems sometimes forced entire production batches to be thrown away.
“Keeping lab-grown food clean of all contaminants is extremely difficult and very expensive,” Baden-Mayer said.
Dr. Meryl Nass, a physician and critic of novel food technologies, said key production details have not been fully answered.
“What cells will be used? What media will be used? The devil will be in the details, and so far, we don’t have them,” Nass said.
Companies developing cell-based cocoa have promoted environmental advantages, including lower land use and the ability to avoid heavy metals such as cadmium and lead that can accumulate in conventionally grown cocoa. California Cultured has said its cells do not contain heavy metals because the company controls the raw materials used in its growth media.
Critics say broader environmental claims around lab-grown foods require closer examination.
A study by University of California, Davis researchers found that cultivated meat production could have a global warming impact several times higher than conventional beef production, depending on the manufacturing process used.
Consumer acceptance is also uncertain.
Surveys have found many consumers remain hesitant about foods described as “cultured” or “cell-based,” often citing safety concerns or discomfort with the concept.
Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute, said he sees little evidence of natural consumer demand for lab-grown chocolate.
“There is near-zero market demand for this ‘frankenfood’ born of the same intellectual class and lab technicians who have given us poison food and medicine,” Tucker said.
Despite skepticism, companies are continuing to move forward.
Celleste Bio has raised $5.6 million and expects its cocoa butter to be ready for the market by 2027. California Cultured expects commercial production to begin this year.
The arrival of lab-grown chocolate could mark a significant shift in the confectionery industry, particularly as conventional cocoa supplies remain under pressure. But critics say the products may reach store shelves before regulators, scientists and consumers have clear answers about long-term safety, contamination control and whether bioreactor-grown cocoa should be treated as equivalent to traditional cocoa.
Source: Natural News
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