Lab-Grown Chocolate

Lab-grown chocolate is made using actual cocoa cells, grown in a controlled environment (bioreactors) rather than on cacao trees. Scientists take cocoa plant cells and cultivate them through cellular agriculture, producing cocoa butter, cocoa solids, and flavor compounds that are biologically cocoa.

Key point:

👉 It is still cocoa — just not farm-grown.

How it’s made:

• Cocoa cells are taken from cacao plants

• Cells are multiplied in the nutrient media

• The resulting cocoa components are processed into chocolate

Why companies pursue it:

• Reduces deforestation and land use

• Avoids child labor and exploitative farming systems

• Stabilizes supply as climate change disrupts cacao yields

• Maintains a product that can legally and chemically be “real cocoa.”

Examples of companies:

• California Cultured

• Celleste Bio

• Barry Callebaut (R&D stage)

• Food Brewer

Key concerns:

• Energy use and scale efficiency

• Regulatory approval and labeling

• Displacement of smallholder cacao farmers

• Concentration of power in biotech firms rather tha…