Nestlé starts wider roll-out of 100% cocoa fruit bar

Nestlé has announced the roll-out of chocolate made exclusively with the cocoa fruit, introducing Incoa, a 70% dark chocolate bar under its Les Recettes de L’Atelier brand.

The launch brings the cocoa pulp-sweetened chocolate to a wide audience across several countries. It will appear on shelves in retail in France and the Netherlands with other European markets to follow.

Incoa is made entirely from the cocoa fruit, not adding any refined sugar. In 2019, Nestlé was the first to announce the development of this revolutionary approach and then launch it with KitKat in Japan.

Louise Barrett, Head of the Nestlé Confectionery Product Technology Centre in York, said: “We are proud to be able to develop and produce a chocolate at-scale using only the cocoa fruit. This breakthrough innovation allows us to deliver a great-tasting dark chocolate, while also integrating agricultural side-streams into our value chain, a key priority for our sustainability agenda.”

Nestlé leveraged its in-house chocolate expertise to develop a patented natural approach which allows it to extract the pulp and produce a dark chocolate that captures the pulp’s intrinsic sweetness and texture. The unique approach enables the company to produce Incoa in high quantities with no compromise on taste, texture and quality.

The release follows after the German family-owned company Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG announced its plans to launch a new product onto the market for chocolate bars. This product named “Cacao y Nada” was the first variety to be made of 100% cocoa. Natural cocoa juice is used for sweetening which Ritter extracts in an innovative process on its own El Cacao plantation in Nicaragua. But there is a problem in Germany: chocolate without any added sugar, the choocolate may not be labelled as chocolate in Germany.

The Cacao y Nada variety contains nothing but cocoa. It comprises cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa powder and cocoa juice. Unlike previous chocolate varieties with 99/100% cocoa content, it does not have a bitter taste but is as pure and sweet as good chocolate should taste.

 

To stay up to date on the latest, trends, innovations, people news and company updates within the global confectionery market please register to receive our newsletter here


Media contact

Kiran Grewal
Editor, International Confectionery

Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922
Email: editor@in-confectionery.com

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

Don't miss new updates on your email
Scroll to Top