Chocolate has a problem that science may help solve. Climate pressures, crop diseases and unpredictable harvests have exposed the vulnerability of the global cocoa supply. Now, some of the world’s biggest chocolate companies are exploring new technologies that could change how one of the world’s most popular treats is produced.
Mondelēz International, the company behind Cadbury, has backed research into cocoa ingredients grown from plant cells. Lindt & Sprüngli is exploring cultivated cocoa through a partnership with biotechnology company Food Brewer. Mars, meanwhile, is researching ways to make conventional cocoa plants more productive and resilient using advanced plant science, including gene editing.
These efforts point toward a future in which chocolate manufacturers may depend less heavily on traditional cocoa farming. But there is an important distinction: growing cocoa cells in a laboratory is not the same as genetically modifying a cocoa tree.
Could laboratory-grown cocoa eventually appear in our favourite chocolate bars? And what would that mean for consumers, farmers and the future of chocolate?
Why Are Chocolate Giants Looking Beyond Cocoa Farms?
For generations, chocolate production has depended on cocoa beans harvested from cacao trees, which grow primarily in tropical regions. Countries in West Africa, particularly Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, play an enormous role in supplying the global market.
This concentration creates vulnerabilities. Unfavourable weather, plant diseases, ageing trees and fluctuations in agricultural production can affect the quantity of cocoa available to manufacturers.
Climate change adds another layer of uncertainty. Changes in rainfall and temperature can affect growing conditions, while diseases and pests can damage plantations. When supplies tighten, manufacturers face higher costs and uncertainty about whether they can obtain the ingredients they need.
For chocolate companies producing millions of bars, even a temporary shortage can create significant problems.
Mondelēz, Lindt and Mars are therefore investigating different ways to protect the future of cocoa. Their approaches vary, but they share a broad objective: making cocoa supplies more resilient without sacrificing the taste and quality consumers expect.
1. Mondelēz International: Making Cocoa Butter From Cultivated Cells
Mondelēz International, the multinational food company behind Cadbury, Oreo and Milka, has taken a direct interest in cultivated cocoa technology through its relationship with Celleste Bio.
Celleste Bio is developing cocoa ingredients using plant-cell culture technology. Instead of growing an entire cacao tree and harvesting its beans, the company cultivates cocoa cells under controlled conditions.
In April 2026, Celleste Bio announced that Mondelēz had used its cell-cultured cocoa butter to produce nearly a dozen prototype milk chocolate bars. According to the company, the prototypes met its product standards for quality and consumption.
This was an important demonstration because cocoa butter plays a critical role in chocolate’s texture, melting behaviour and mouthfeel.
Chocolate is not simply a mixture of cocoa powder and sugar. Its physical properties depend heavily on the fats present in cocoa butter. Reproducing those properties is essential if a new ingredient is to work in familiar chocolate products.
Celleste says its technology can produce cocoa butter with properties comparable to conventionally sourced cocoa butter. The company has also described plans to scale production, with commercial readiness targeted for 2027.
That target is not a guarantee of a retail launch. Production capacity, costs and regulatory requirements will all influence whether the technology becomes commercially viable.
Nevertheless, the prototypes show that cultivated cocoa ingredients are moving beyond theoretical research and into product development.
2. Lindt & Sprüngli: Exploring Cocoa Grown in Bioreactors
Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli is also exploring cultivated cocoa through its connection with Food Brewer, a biotechnology company developing cocoa ingredients in controlled environments.
Food Brewer’s approach involves cultivating cocoa plant cells in tanks known as bioreactors. These vessels provide a controlled environment in which cells can grow before being harvested and processed into ingredients.
The concept is different from producing a synthetic chocolate flavour from unrelated ingredients. Cultivated cocoa starts with cocoa plant cells, aiming to produce genuine cocoa-derived material without requiring the same agricultural process used to grow and harvest conventional cocoa beans.
Food Brewer is developing cultivated cocoa powder and cocoa liquor, among other ingredients. Its technology is intended to reduce dependence on the geographical and climatic conditions that affect conventional cocoa production.
For Lindt, the attraction is not necessarily to abandon traditional farming. Cultivated ingredients could instead become another source of cocoa, helping manufacturers manage supply disruptions and potentially improve consistency.
However, substantial challenges remain. Growing plant cells in a laboratory is one thing; producing large quantities at a price that chocolate manufacturers and consumers will accept is another.
Lindt’s involvement should therefore be understood as an exploration of an emerging technology, not evidence that its familiar chocolate products have already switched to laboratory-grown cocoa.
3. Mars: Improving Cocoa Plants Through Advanced Genetics
Mars, the company behind M&M’s, Snickers and other major confectionery brands, is approaching the challenge from a different direction.
Its research includes the use of CRISPR gene-editing technology to investigate how cocoa plants might become more productive and resilient.
Mars has described preliminary research with leading universities, including the University of California, Berkeley, into crops such as cacao. Its stated aims include developing plants that are better equipped to withstand disease and climate pressures and use water and nutrients more efficiently.
Gene editing works differently from cell cultivation.
Instead of growing cocoa cells in a bioreactor to produce ingredients, researchers investigate changes to a plant’s genetic material that could improve its characteristics. The resulting cocoa would still be grown on a plant, with beans harvested through agriculture.
This distinction matters because Mars’s work does not mean it is replacing cocoa farms with laboratory-grown chocolate.
Instead, its research could help farmers produce more reliable cocoa harvests, potentially protecting both the chocolate supply chain and the livelihoods of agricultural communities.
If successful, improved cocoa varieties could complement other innovations, including cultivated cocoa ingredients and better farming practices.
The future of chocolate may therefore involve several technologies operating together rather than one replacing everything that came before.
How Does Lab-Grown Cocoa Actually Work?
Cultivated cocoa begins with cells obtained from a cocoa plant. Scientists select and grow suitable cells under carefully controlled conditions, supplying the nutrients and environment needed for cell growth.
The cells can then be cultivated in larger vessels, including bioreactors, where temperature, oxygen and other conditions can be managed.
After sufficient growth, the resulting biological material is harvested and processed into ingredients.
The exact process depends on the ingredient being produced. Making cocoa butter, cocoa powder and cocoa liquor involves different processing requirements, and not every company is developing all three.
The objective is to produce cocoa-derived ingredients with the flavour, texture and functional properties required for chocolate manufacturing.
One potential advantage is that production would be less directly exposed to droughts, storms and diseases affecting cocoa plantations. Controlled production could also allow manufacturers to monitor ingredients more consistently.
However, cultivated cocoa still requires energy, nutrients, equipment and industrial infrastructure. Its environmental performance will depend on how efficiently those resources are used.
It is too early to assume that every laboratory-grown cocoa product will automatically be cheaper or more sustainable than conventional cocoa.
Will Lab-Grown Cocoa Taste Like Real Chocolate?
This is one of the most important questions for consumers.
Chocolate’s flavour comes from a complex combination of cocoa compounds, fermentation, roasting and processing. Cocoa butter also determines how chocolate melts in the mouth and contributes to its texture.
A cultivated ingredient must reproduce the properties required for the particular product in which it will be used.
Celleste Bio’s 2026 prototypes provide an early demonstration that cell-cultured cocoa butter can be incorporated into milk chocolate. However, prototype production does not establish that every cultivated cocoa ingredient will perform identically across all chocolate recipes.
Manufacturers would need to test flavour, texture, shelf life, processing behaviour and consistency at commercial scale.
Consumer acceptance will matter just as much. Some people may welcome a new way to produce chocolate, while others may prefer ingredients obtained through traditional farming.
Clear labelling and transparent information about how cultivated ingredients are produced could influence whether consumers are willing to try them.
Could Chocolate Become Cheaper?
Potentially, but there is no guarantee.
Traditional cocoa prices are influenced by harvests, weather, crop diseases, inventories, transport and global demand. Cultivated cocoa could provide an additional source of ingredients, reducing manufacturers’ dependence on some agricultural disruptions.
Yet laboratory production has its own costs. Bioreactors, specialised equipment, nutrients, energy, quality control and the challenge of scaling production can make early products expensive.
For cultivated cocoa to compete with conventional ingredients, manufacturers will need to produce it reliably and economically in substantial quantities.
Even if production costs fall, retail chocolate prices will also depend on packaging, transport, labour, marketing and other ingredients.
Laboratory-grown cocoa could eventually help stabilise supplies, but consumers should not expect chocolate prices to fall immediately simply because the technology exists.
What Happens to Cocoa Farmers?
The impact on farmers is one of the most important questions surrounding this development.
Millions of people depend on cocoa cultivation for their livelihoods. If laboratory production eventually replaces a substantial share of conventional cocoa demand, some farming communities could face economic pressure.
However, that outcome is neither inevitable nor imminent.
Cultivated cocoa remains an emerging technology, and scaling it to meet a significant portion of global demand will take time. Traditional cocoa will continue to play an important role in chocolate production.
Mars’s work on improving cocoa plants illustrates another possible path: using science to make conventional farming more productive and resilient.
Cultivated ingredients could also supplement agricultural supplies rather than replace them entirely. Whether that creates benefits for farmers will depend on how companies, governments and agricultural communities manage the transition.
Supporting farmers through better farming practices, improved productivity, fairer purchasing arrangements and sustainable supply chains will remain important even as new production technologies develop.
When Will Lab-Grown Chocolate Reach Supermarket Shelves?
There is no single launch date for the entire industry.
Celleste Bio has targeted 2027 for commercial readiness of its cultivated cocoa butter. Food Brewer is developing its own cultivated cocoa ingredients, while Mars continues research into more resilient cocoa plants.
Each approach faces different technical, commercial and regulatory hurdles.
Food ingredients produced through novel cell-culture processes may require regulatory assessment before they can be sold in particular markets. Manufacturers must also establish that their ingredients meet food-safety requirements and work reliably in commercial production.
Consequently, a successful laboratory experiment or prototype chocolate bar does not mean that a product is ready for mass distribution.
The pace of adoption will depend on regulatory decisions, manufacturing capacity, production costs and consumer demand.
The Future of Chocolate May Combine Farms and Laboratories
The emerging race to secure cocoa supplies is not simply a battle between nature and technology.
Mondelēz is backing the development of cultivated cocoa butter. Lindt is exploring cocoa grown from cells in controlled environments. Mars is researching ways to improve the resilience of cocoa plants themselves.
These strategies address the same broad challenge from different directions.
In the future, a chocolate manufacturer might source some ingredients from conventional cocoa farms, obtain others from cultivated-cell facilities and benefit from agricultural varieties designed to withstand harsher growing conditions.
That possibility could help diversify supplies, although its economic and environmental benefits remain to be demonstrated at scale.
Chocolate may not need to abandon cocoa farms to change dramatically. The more immediate possibility is that science could give manufacturers additional ways to produce the ingredients that make chocolate what it is.
For now, traditional cocoa farming remains essential. But if cultivated cocoa becomes affordable, safe and widely accepted, the next generation of chocolate could be produced through a combination of agriculture and biotechnology.
The question is no longer simply whether scientists can grow cocoa cells in a laboratory. It is whether they can turn that achievement into a reliable, affordable ingredient without leaving the people who grow conventional cocoa behind.
Editorial note: Cultivated cocoa and gene-edited cocoa plants are different technologies. Company announcements about prototypes and research should not be interpreted as evidence that regular Cadbury, Lindt or Mars products have already been replaced by laboratory-grown cocoa.
