As the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products we were electrified by this idea and joined forces with Bloom to investigate the potential for converting our chocolate and cocoa production side streams into reusable material. 

Together with La Morella Nuts, our global specialty nut brand, Bloom discovered that hazelnuts shells have promising biomass potential: thanks to a groundbreaking process, nutshells can be efficiently converted into flavoring agents, such as vanillin – the main element in vanilla flavoring – which can be used in chocolate. For us at Barry Callebaut, this represents an exciting opportunity to “close the loop” in chocolate production. And transforming nutshells into vanillin is only the first of many possibilities that will be evaluated together with Bloom.

At Barry Callebaut, we are always interested in innovative initiatives to scale and drive impact around Forever Chocolate, our plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm. As a founding partner of MassChallenge Switzerland, Barry Callebaut continues to build its track record of collaborating with high-impact startups to tackle big challenges. Together we explore, test, advance and champion ideas with the potential to support us on our journey towards a sustainable cocoa and chocolate supply chain.

Connecting the dots with high impact startups

MassChallenge is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting global innovation and entrepreneurship through collaboration and development. Since 2016, MassChallenge Switzerland has helped to connect startups across multiple industries with the resources, partnerships, and communities they need to successfully launch, grow and scale. Barry Callebaut is a founding partner of MassChallenge Switzerland.