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How Tony’s Chocolonely Created a Purpose-Driven (and Profitable) Supply Chain

• Frans Pannekoek,
• Thomas Breugem,
• Luk N. Van Wassenhove

A case study of the popular Dutch chocolate company.

Supply chains in commodity industries are often characterized by social and environmental abuse. In the cocoa industry, for example, the average farmer cultivates between three and five hectares to earn less than two dollars a day. It is an environment rife with social and environmental abuse. In this article, the authors look at the experience of Tony’s Chocolonely, a Dutch chocolate brand founded in 2005, which set itself a mission to sell 100% slavery-free chocolate. They show how Tony’s brought its supply chain partners together to create an altogether new paradigm in which all actors take responsibility for social impact. And it really works: Tony’s profitably sells around $130 million worth of slavery-free chocolate bars in Western Europe and the U.S.

Supply chains for many commodity products — such as cocoa, cotton, and sugar — are highly fragmented. In the case of cocoa, for example, most of which comes from West Africa, the raw product is produced by more than two million farmers, who supply a complex network of middlemen. With an average farm size of three to five hectares and an estimated income of less than two dollars a day, nearly all of these farmers live below the poverty line. It is an environment rife with social and environmental abuse.

• FP Frans Pannekoek is a former COO at Tony’s Chocoloney, a sustainable confectionery  company based in the Nethelands, and the current COO of Seepje, a sustainable cleaning products manufacturer, also based in the Netherlands.  He is also an adjunct professor at the TIAS School for Business and Society in the Netherlands.
• TB Thomas Breugem is a professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands works on the university’s Zero Hunger Lab project.  He is also a visiting scholar with the Humanitarian Research Group at INSEAD, a global business school with campuses in France, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi.
• LW Luk N. Van Wassenhove is the Henry Ford Chaired Professor of Manufacturing, Emeritus, at INSEAD and leads its Humanitarian Research Group and its Sustainable Operations Initiative.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Food Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Food Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Sensory Evaluation Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

• Allison L. Brown, 
• Alyssa J. Bakke, 
• Helene Hopfer

• Published: November 4, 2020
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177
• Peer Review
• Reader Comments

Craft chocolate is a relatively new and fast-growing segment of the American chocolate market. To understand American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate product attributes, we conducted a mixed-methods study using focus groups and projective mapping. Projective mapping revealed that participants segmented products in terms of quality based upon usage occasion rather than cost or other factors. We found that American premium chocolate consumers use search attributes such as segmentation, price, availability, and packaging as quality determinants. Additionally, they desire credence attributes that convey trust through, for example, the presence or absence of sustainability certifications, or a semblance of meaning. Premium chocolate consumers seek out experience attributes such as utility and/or joy, which are achieved by purchasing a chocolate product as a gift, for its nostalgic purposes, or for desired post-ingestive effects. We propose a Desirable Chocolate Attribute Concept Map to explain our findings.

Citation: Brown AL, Bakke AJ, Hopfer H (2020) Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping. PLoS ONE 15(11): e0240177. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177

Editor: Patrizia Restani, Università degli Studi di Milano, ITALY

Received: April 27, 2020; Accepted: September 21, 2020; Published: November 4, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Brown et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data underlying the results presented in the study that can be publicly displayed are available within the paper, its Supporting Information files, or at doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 . The Pennsylvania State University Institutional Review Board reviewed and approved the study protocol (number 6654). This protocol limits the use and public sharing of the transcripts for any future research due to the presence of sensitive identifying information. Field data access queries may be directed to the Research Data Management Services at The Pennsylvania State University Libraries (contact via [email protected] ).

Funding: This work was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04624 and Accession number 1013412, awarded to H.H. ( https://nifa.usda.gov/grants ). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This research did not receive any industry sponsorship. The products used were selected at the discretion of the authors.

Competing interests: ALB, AJB, and HH are all employed by Penn State. ALB is a former employee of Ghent University and was an intern at Mars Netherlands. AJB is a former employee of Land O’Lakes and has received consulting fees from Eight Oaks Distillery and Giant Eagle. HH is a former employee of UC Davis and HM.Clause and has received consulting fees from Henkel Adhesive Technology. HH is an associate editor and member of the publications committee at the American Society of Enology & Viticulture (ASEV). ALB receives funding from USDA-NIFA. AJB receives or has received funding from PA Dept. of Agriculture and the National Sugar Association. HH receives or has received funding from Penn State, University of Alabama, USDA-NIFA, USDAFAS, PA Dept. of Agriculture, National Dairy Council, PT Indesso Aroma, and Sherwin-Williams Company. HH has received travel support and honoraria from AOAC, University of Alabama, and Henkel Adhesive Technology for speaking at meetings. HH is the Rasmussen Career Development Professor in Food Science, a named professorship made possible by a philanthropic gift by Frederick, Sr. & Faith E. Rasmussen. ALB is or has been a member of the following professional societies: IFT, SSP, Gamma Sigma Delta, Phi Tau Sigma, and the Philanthropic Educational Organization International. AJB is or has been a member of the following professional societies: IFT, SSP. HH is or has been a member of the following professional societies: ASEV, IFT, FCIA, SSP, GöCH, ASAC, E3S, and Gamma Sigma Delta. None of these organizations nor the funders have had any role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. The competing interests statement in the manuscript does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Introduction

“Craft” or “bean-to-bar” chocolate has experienced prolific growth in the United States chocolate market in the past twenty-plus years. The American craft chocolate industry is said to have begun in 1996 with Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker who coined the term “bean-to-bar” while making chocolate from cocoa beans in their Berkeley, California garage [ 1 – 3 ]. As of 2015, Leissle reported that there were 129 craft chocolate makers in the United States [ 4 ] and by 2016, Woolley et al. reported that this number had grown to 177 makers [ 5 ]. In 2018, the Fine Chocolate Industry Association (FCIA), an industry group, stated that there were over 300 craft chocolate makers, most of which are located in the United States [ 6 ]. There is no official definition for craft or bean-to-bar chocolate, though several definitions have been proposed [ 1 , 2 ]. In 2008, the now-defunct group, Craft Chocolate Makers of America, defined craft chocolate as “made from scratch by an independent, small company (one that uses between 1 metric ton and 200 metric tons of cocoa beans per year and is at least 75% owned by the company itself or the company’s employees)” [ 1 p. 31]. In the intervening time, several companies took on investors for growth purposes and by 2017 a more accurate definition was provided by Leissle [ 4 ], which we use for this paper [ 2 ]. A craft chocolate company (a) is one that starts with cocoa beans and produces finished chocolate (“bean-to-bar”); (b) is not owned by one of the “Big Five” multinationals (Mondelēz International, Inc; Ferrero-Rocher SpA; Nestlé SA; The Hershey Company; Mars, Inc.) [ 7 ]; (c) and was established during the recent wave of innovation, since 1996 [ 4 p. 39].

Chocolate market

The United States chocolate retail market is valued at more than $19 billion by market research firm Mintel [ 8 ]. The National Confectioners Association (NCA) serves as the main lobbying group for the confectionery industry and tracks chocolate purchases using retail measurement and household data as a service to its constituents. In their product tracking, the NCA traditionally divided chocolate products into everyday chocolate, priced at less than $8 per pound, and premium chocolate, priced at more than $8 per pound. In 2016, the NCA increased the price demarcating premium chocolate to $11 per pound [ 9 , 10 ]. Then, for their 2019 survey of chocolate consumers, the NCA changed the category name from everyday to “mainstream” and added a third category, “fine chocolate” [ 9 ]. According to the NCA, mainstream chocolate is typified by Hershey, Snickers or Baby Ruth; premium chocolate is typified as Lindt, Ghirardelli or Ferrero; and fine chocolate is that “made by small artisan chocolatiers, who source the best quality cacao, create small-batch products with unique flavors and textures, and educate consumers about the product and process” [ 9 ]. Ultimately, fine chocolate companies as defined by the FCIA include not only the makers of what we have defined as craft chocolate, but also chocolatiers, companies that produce chocolate used by chocolatiers, and multinationals that own craft chocolate brands [ 11 ].

In 2016, Vreeland & Associates valued the craft chocolate industry at $100 million, which is no longer accurate because of the industry’s rapid growth [ 13 ; C. Vreeland, personal communication, September 20, 2018]. It is difficult to put a value on the fine chocolate and craft chocolate market because few of the purchases are captured by retail measurement and household data, which rely on scanning Universal Product Codes [ 9 ]. Regardless, craft chocolate comprises a substantial portion of the US chocolate market [ 12 ]. In addition, craft chocolate has already been the target of multinational confectionery company acquisitions, and it is reasonable to predict that craft chocolate will follow the acquisition trend of craft beer [ 3 , 13 – 15 ].

Because of craft chocolate’s value to the confectionery industry, its attractiveness to multinationals, and its alignment with other craft industries (namely, craft beer, artisanal cheese, and specialty coffee), it presents an interesting case study to understand this new movement of craft consumption. Additionally, there is no previous literature on motivators for craft chocolate perception and purchase. Because premium chocolate consumers are the most likely segment to trade up to craft chocolate, this study sought to uncover premium chocolate consumer perceptions of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate attributes [ 16 ].

Research objectives

We had the following research objectives:

• To gain insight into American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate.
• To identify search, experience, and credence attributes that are important to American premium chocolate consumers.

International chocolate consumers

Most chocolate consumer behavior studies have been carried out in Europe to identify consumer perception and willingness to pay for sustainability labels (e.g. organic, fair trade). Studies in Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Belgium showed that consumers segment based upon demographics or psychographics in terms of their interest in purchasing sustainably-labeled chocolate [ 17 – 24 ]. UK chocolate consumer research concluded that the flavor and brand of the chocolate bar must be congruent to elicit a positive emotional response and recurrent purchases from consumers [ 21 ]. A recent study with Australian chocolate consumers found that packaging was a strong driver of consumer expectations and liking [ 25 ]. Overall, these studies determined that consumer attitude and behavior towards chocolate product attributes are strongly linked to consumer location and cannot be transferred to consumers from other countries.

American chocolate consumers

American chocolate consumers are regularly surveyed by Mintel in their biennial Chocolate Confectionery, US Reports [ 16 , 26 ]. These reports provide a barometer of year-to-year shifts in chocolate purchase behaviors, but do not pursue the “why” behind consumer choices.

One of the only academic studies on American consumer perception of chocolate compared younger and older Midwestern millennial preference for sustainability certifications on candy bars using focus groups followed by a choice experiment [ 27 ]. They determined that younger millennials (ages 18–25 years old) were primarily focused on taste in their candy bar purchases and were not interested in sustainability certifications, while older millennial (ages 26–35 years old) cited positive views towards sustainability certifications in focus groups, but these attitudes did not align with the results of the choice experiment [ 27 ]. One of the main reasons consumers cited as a motivator for purchasing chocolate with sustainability certifications was guilt reduction by making healthy choices for themselves (organic) and also better working conditions for cocoa producers (fair trade) [ 27 ]. While this study scratched the surface of American consumer attitudes towards sustainability certifications in chocolate, it investigated these in the context of candy bars. In addition, the choice experiment presented 435 pairings to each participant and was reported to have exhausted participants, which makes it difficult to interpret the findings.

American craft chocolate consumers

Academic literature specific to craft chocolate has investigated the use of the word “artisan” as a brand and the rejection of sustainability certifications by craft chocolate makers [ 4 , 5 ]. In her survey of 100 attendees of the 2014 Northwest Chocolate Festival, Leissle [ 4 ] discovered that 48% of “interested” chocolate consumers defined the difference between “artisan” and “industrial” chocolate as the “flavor of the chocolate bar.” Leissle [ 4 ] concluded that consumers buy “artisan” chocolate to resolve their moral conflict between enjoying a middle-class luxury, like chocolate, and buying from an exploitative value chain [ 4 ]. Woolley et al. [ 5 ] found that the majority of craft chocolate companies reject the use of sustainability certifications because they believe that direct trade is preferable and a sustainability certification would dilute their brand. In direct trade, cacao sourcers go to the producing country, discuss post-harvest processing with the farmer, and typically pay higher prices for their cocoa beans than the fair trade standard [ 5 ].

As a service to their industry members, chocolate industry associations have characterized craft chocolate consumers. In 2017, the FCIA administered 1,000 surveys at chocolate shows across the US and conducted focus groups in various chocolate shops with over 120 consumers [ 6 ]. Their sample population was not the general public, but “chocolate enthusiasts” and “connoisseurs” who demonstrated a strong interest in fine chocolate. As a continuation of this work, FCIA collaborated with the NCA in 2019 to broaden their scope with a national survey of 1,500 chocolate consumers of all types in an effort to understand differences among consumer segments [ 9 ].

NCA survey results showed that 27% of chocolate consumers identify as fine chocolate consumers, and of this population, sustainability certifications are most desired by millennials for whom cacao farming and chocolate production practices are important [ 9 ]. This finding opposes Young & McCoy’s [ 27 ] overall finding that Midwestern millennial consumers (who were not screened based upon level of engagement) are not interested in sustainability labels. The FCIA study with chocolate enthusiasts found that fair trade was preferred more than direct trade [ 6 ].

The FCIA study found that the top purchase motivators for fine chocolate were pleasure, gifts, health, and environmental impact, while the NCA study reported that among fine chocolate buyers, the top motivations for purchasing fine chocolate were that it tastes better, is more satisfying, makes a good gift, and supports small businesses [ 6 , 9 ]. The most influential factors for chocolate purchases among all chocolate consumers surveyed by the NCA were mood, brand, and price [ 9 ].

In characterizing fine and craft chocolate consumers, the NCA found that fine chocolate consumers are younger, more affluent, likely to live in urban areas, and greatly value social and environmental stewardship [ 9 ]. Interestingly, core fine chocolate consumers (defined as the 11% of the survey population who regularly purchase fine chocolate) were more likely to believe American-made chocolate is better that European chocolate, whereas premium chocolate consumers were more likely to believe that European chocolate is better [ 9 ]. Chocolate enthusiasts overwhelmingly preferred dark chocolate and cacao percentage was important to 73% of fine chocolate consumers [ 6 , 9 ]. Experimentation and trying novel chocolates was found to be essential to fine chocolate consumption [ 9 ].

While the findings of these two surveys and focus groups help to understand the views of craft and fine chocolate consumers, the implications are limited. The FCIA work was restricted to consumers already purchasing craft chocolate, while the NCA study segmented between fine chocolate and premium consumers, but their definition for fine chocolate was vague and not synonymous with craft chocolate. Both surveys fall victim to typical limitations of survey data, which is that they do not probe deeply to understand consumer emotions and feelings behind purchases. In addition, the focus groups were not analyzed using a robust method, such as coding, and instead were only summarized.

The research met the criteria for exempt research according to the policies of this institution and the provisions of applicable U.S. Federal Regulations. This study was reviewed by The Pennsylvania State University Institutional Review Board and was deemed exempt by exemption category six (taste and food quality evaluation; protocol number 6654). All participants provided informed, oral consent and were compensated for their time ($10/hour).

Study design

To understand desirable chocolate attributes and how premium chocolate consumers perceive craft chocolate, we developed a mixed-methods study that used focus groups and a projective mapping activity.

Rationale for focus groups.

Because no previous literature or reports describe American premium chocolate consumer attitudes to craft chocolate or desirable chocolate attributes, an exploratory method such as a focus group is an appropriate method to fulfill our research objectives and generate hypotheses for future work [ 28 ]. In addition, a focus group allows us to look for a range of ideas or feelings that premium chocolate consumers have about chocolate and uncover factors that influence opinions, behaviors, and motivation. Additionally, a focus group familiarizes us with consumer language related to premium and craft chocolate [ 28 ].

Rationale for projective mapping.

In conjunction with the focus group, a projective mapping activity was carried out in advance by focus group participants and used as a visual aid during focus group introductions [ 29 ]. Projective mapping is a rapid technique in which consumers place products on a blank space in terms of their relationship to one another (e.g. flavor, quality, etc.) [ 29 ]. In the field of food and consumer science, qualitative methods, such as focus groups, are sometimes regarded as less robust than quantitative methods because participants may be influenced by social bias and not express their honest personal opinions [ 30 – 32 ]. One solution, as Risvik et al. [ 29 ] suggested, is the use of a focus group combined with a projective mapping activity, wherein the quantitative mapping activity may be discussed during the focus group and used to validate the focus group findings. With this work, we sought to demonstrate that chocolate products could be mapped by consumers, that the map could be used during the focus group itself as an introductory visual aid, and that the map could be analyzed later and used as a tool to compare with and enhance focus group findings.

Participant selection.

Participants were recruited via email using two electronic mailing lists with voluntary subscribers, consisting of employees, students and community members of The Pennsylvania State University campus and surrounding area (State College, PA). Potential participants completed an online screener for eligibility and willingness to participate, created in Compusense Cloud software (Compusense Cloud, Academic Consortium, Guelph, ONT, Canada). In an effort to find engaged premium chocolate consumers, screening criteria were developed using best practices as described by Stone, Bleibaum, & Sidel [ 33 ], and to be more stringent than the Mintel chocolate consumer criteria of “18+ and purchased chocolate within the last three months” [ 16 ]. The criteria used in this experiment were as follows: between 18–70 years old; not pregnant or breastfeeding; no food allergies or sensitivities to chocolate; fluency in English; primary food shopper; frequent chocolate consumption (from daily to two to three times per month); weekly to monthly consumption of premium chocolate (Godiva, Lindt, Guittard, Eclat, Dandelion, Ghirardelli, Vosges, etc.); and articulateness as determined by answers to an open-ended question about the participant’s “most memorable chocolate moment.” Of the 625 subscribers who filled out the screener, a total of 27 (15 females) reportedly healthy individuals, ages 22–67, were selected as participants, provided informed consent, opted to participate, and were compensated for their time ($10/hour). All participants who were selected chose to participate.

Projective mapping design.

One week prior to the focus group, participants were assigned a projective mapping activity to complete individually at home [ 29 , 34 – 36 ]. Each participant received a 17-inch (43.2 cm) by 11-inch (27.9 cm) sheet of plain white paper and 47 stickers (see see Image 1 https://doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 ) of various chocolate products that ranged from mainstream to premium and craft chocolates. As with other projective mapping studies with non-taste stimuli, participants did not eat the products [ 37 ]. Participants were instructed to do the following:

Please evaluate the chocolate products (on the stickers) according to similarities or dissimilarities in quality attributes by placing similar samples close to each other and more dissimilar samples further apart on the attached large sheet of paper. Once you reach a final configuration, note down appropriate descriptors for the characteristics of the chocolates, directly on the large sheet of paper, when needed. In addition, if the final configuration contains groupings, please label and/or circle the groupings as you see fit .

The term “quality” was used in an effort to provide clear, yet non-directing instruction in order to promote nuanced and individual groupings reflective of participant’s preconception of desirable attributes. Participants brought the sheet of paper to the focus groups and used it as a visual aid for “show and tell” to describe how they perceive chocolate quality.

Focus group design.

A total of four focus groups lasting approximately 120 minutes each were conducted with 5–8 participants in January and February 2017. Each focus group was led by the first author and observed by the second and last authors. Discussions took place in The Pennsylvania State University Department of Food Science Focus Group Room, a custom-built qualitative research facility located in the Erickson Food Science Building (University Park, PA, USA). All discussions were audio recorded with voice recorders (Sony ICDPX370, New York, NY, USA). The audio recordings were transcribed verbatim by a commercial transcription service (Landmark Associates, Phoenix, AZ, USA) and checked against the audio recordings to verify completeness. Immediately following each focus group, the moderator and two observers mapped each focus group for themes.

Because chocolate has been considered an aphrodisiac and American women have reported craving chocolate during perimenstruation, focus groups were divided by gender into two groups of all men and two groups of all women, to follow best practices and allow participants to feel comfortable discussing chocolate [ 38 – 42 ]. Aside from basic demographic data collected from the participants based upon information they provided to the database, no information on profession, education, income, or otherwise, was collected from the participants.

The focus group questioning route was divided into three parts and sought to encourage a comfortable discussion of the research questions by beginning with general questions that eventually narrowed in focus (See S1 Appendix for Focus Group Moderator Guide) [ 38 , 43 ]. In part one, participants introduced themselves, recalled their most significant chocolate moment that they had articulated in the screener, explained their projective maps to the group, and described how they interpret chocolate quality. In part two, participants tasted five different chocolate bars, one at a time, that presented a range of commercial chocolates (see Image 2 https://doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 ) [ 9 ]. Due to the ubiquitous presence of the Hershey’s milk chocolate bar (The Hershey Company, Hershey, PA, USA) in the United States, it was selected to represent mainstream chocolate [ 9 ]. Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate (Lindt & Sprüngli USA, Inc., Stratham, NH, USA) was selected to represent premium chocolate and a Swiss and European bar. Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate Bar 70% Cacao (Mondelēz International, Inc, East Hanover, NJ, USA) was selected because it is also premium and has a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Organic and a Fair Trade label. Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt and Almonds (Endangered Species Chocolate, Indianapolis, IN, USA) was selected as a third premium chocolate because the chocolate bar supports a cause, with 10% of proceeds benefitting an endangered species on the packaging [ 44 , 45 ]. In addition, Endangered Species Chocolate prominently displays Non-GMO Project, Fair Trade, Gluten Free, and Vegan certifications. Endangered Species Chocolate has since changed its label due to internal consumer and ethnographic research [ 44 , 45 ]. Dandelion Chocolate 70% Ambanja, Madagascar (Dandelion Chocolate, San Francisco, CA, USA) was selected to represent craft chocolate because Dandelion is one of the original craft chocolate companies and a segment leader [ 2 ]. We considered using a counterbalanced order for sample presentation, but decided against it for both simple logistical reasons (i.e., any blocking would need to occur at the order of group, not individual, to avoid mixing up samples), and more critically, because we were concerned about contrast effects and carryover effects that would occur if a group tried a simple mild chocolate immediately after an intense and complex chocolate, as carryover and contrast would obscure the flavor of the simpler milder chocolate [ 46 , 47 ]. While not yet established in the sensory literature for chocolate, the same logic of least intense to most intense is used in wine tastings because it has been shown to dramatically impact perception of wine flavor [ 48 ]. All of the chocolate bars presented were also used as stickers in the projective mapping activity. Due to availability, a different origin was selected for the Dandelion Chocolate bar, but the package looked almost the same as the sticker used (see Images 1 and 2 https://doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 ). Participants sampled one piece of each chocolate bar at a time and were given time to write down notes. Afterwards, in a group discussion, they described the product in terms of flavor, packaging, certification labels and other elements and attributes they found appealing and unappealing. For part three, participants discussed what encourages them to purchase a new food product and shared words they would use to describe the chocolates tasted. With four focus groups in total it was possible to identify key themes for the project within financial constraints [ 49 – 51 ].

Data analysis

Focus group word clouds..

For part two of the focus groups, each transcript was segmented by chocolate product discussed (i.e. Hershey’s, Lindt, Green & Black’s, etc.) and combined across all four focus groups. These text segments were analyzed using Voyant Tools (version 2.4) to remove stopwords, create frequency tables, and ultimately, word clouds [ 52 ]. Stopwords were defined as function words that do not carry meaning (e.g. won’t) or words that were used at such a high frequency that their meaning did not differ across corpora (e.g. chocolate) [ 52 ]. Texts were cleaned using the Voyant Tools standard English stopword list of 485 words, which was edited to include additional words from the corpora. Word clouds were constructed from the top 95 words used for each chocolate bar.

Focus group data analysis.

Focus group transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory and inductive methods with an emphasis on emergent themes [ 50 , 53 ]. Grounded theory is an appropriate method because craft chocolate is a novel food product and there is no prior research from which to preconceive codes [ 50 , 54 ].

Coding was performed by two researchers who read through one transcript and agreed on a master codebook relevant to the research questions [ 55 ]. The “classic approach” otherwise known as the “scissor-and-sort” technique, was used to cut up the printed transcripts, group similar quotes, and then assign the quotes to codes [ 50 , 55 – 57 ]. Particular attention was given to quotes where participants showed emotion, enthusiasm, passion or intensity [ 55 , 57 ]. While topic frequency in quotes was observed, it was not a mandatory criterion for coding and outlier quotes were acknowledged [ 57 ]. Once codes were determined, they were assembled into memos and memos were subsumed into themes [ 50 ]. Themes were back-checked for consistency, coherency, and distinctiveness among researchers and with the thematic maps that were produced at the end of each focus group.

Projective map data analysis.

Projective maps were analyzed using Multiple Factor Analysis to create a product map with a product descriptor overlay [ 58 ]. Three participants did not follow the instructions correctly and their product maps were unusable, leaving 24 product maps to be analyzed. First, x, y-coordinates of the stickers were measured using the bottom left corner of the map as the origin [ 59 , 60 ]. Words that were used to describe the products in the maps were coded by three researchers who agreed upon a master codebook. The three researchers coded 12 of the 24 total maps together and the remaining maps were coded by one researcher. One sample, the Raspberry Ghirardelli tablet, was dropped from the analysis due to a coding error. The final chocolate product number was 46.

Data was analyzed in R (version 3.5.1) [ 61 ] with RStudio (version 1.1.456, Boston, MA, USA) using the FactoMineR and SensoMineR packages [ 62 , 63 ]. A contingency table was created using X, Y-coordinate data as the first 46 columns and the code words as the last 24 columns per product. Multiple Factor Analysis [ 58 , 63 , 64 ] was used to interpret the product space with the qualitative data by running the code words as supplementary variables [ 58 , 63 , 64 ]. Word Count Analysis [ 62 ] was used to identify consensual words, which are defined as words that have the same meaning for most of the participants at a significant level ( p < 0.05) of consensus [ 65 ].

Results & discussion

The following section outlines focus group and projective mapping analyses as answers to the research objectives. Each results section contains a brief discussion section.

American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate

Overall, premium chocolate consumers perceived craft chocolate as novel and exciting, and struggled to contextualize it. Consumers were surprised by the fruity flavor and likened craft chocolate to coffee and wine in terms of flavor and packaging elements. In comparison to the mainstream and premium chocolate bars, when the Dandelion bar was revealed, participants were anxious to try it, and in focus group four, participants squealed with delight. For most focus group participants, this excitement translated into a quality determinant, which was expressed by a male consumer:

Wow, that must be good. I don't even recognize it .

The word clouds in Fig 1 illustrate different words used to describe each chocolate bar among the four focus groups. For the Hershey bar ( Fig 1A ), the focus was on its “sweet” “taste,” “smooth” “melt,” and “creamy” texture. The second bar tasted was the Lindt 70% bar ( Fig 1B ), for which the words “dark,” “taste,” and “bitterness” are noteworthy. Additionally, when this bar was discussed, “packaging” was important and participants across all focus groups focused on the predominance of “70” “percent” “cocoa” as an indicator of quality. For all four focus groups, the conversation around the Green & Black’s bar ( Fig 1C ) was about “organic” and “fair” “trade.” With the Endangered Species chocolate bar ( Fig 1D ), the meaning of “GMO” was questioned in every focus group. Participants also focused on the inclusion of “sea” “salt” and “almonds” in the chocolate bar. For the Dandelion chocolate bar ( Fig 1E ), participants described the bar as “different” and wondered where the “beans” came from. The discussion of “flavor” was accentuated by use of the words “fruity,” “wine,” and “coffee.” Additionally, the name “greg,” the cocoa sourcer listed on the back of the package, was prominently discussed. The meanings of these words will be discussed in the following sections.

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a) Hershey’s milk chocolate, b) Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate bar, c) Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate bar 70%, d) Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt and Almonds, e) Dandelion Chocolate 70% Ambanja, Madagascar.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177.g001

A few words came up in the discussion of every chocolate bar. The word “mean” appears in every word cloud and dominates some of them. Participants questioned the meaning of several packaging elements (i.e. What does it mean?), such as sustainability labels (non-GMO, organic, fair trade) and cocoa percentage. Additionally, “Hershey” appears in every word cloud. Participants compared all of the chocolate bars to the Hershey bar in terms of taste, flavor, safety, sustainability, and claims. This may have been because the Hershey bar was tasted first in the sequence or because the Hershey bar was the most familiar chocolate bar to participants.

The difference in word use frequency during discussions of the different chocolate bars illustrate that when tasting the mainstream, and only milk chocolate bar in the group, the emphasis was on the sweet taste and creamy, smooth melt of the Hershey bar, whereas with the Lindt, Green & Black’s and Endangered Species bars, the focus was on packaging elements, such as cacao percentage, organic and GMO [free] certifications. When the Dandelion craft chocolate bar was tasted, participants focused on flavor. Several participants were curious how the fruit flavor got into the chocolate and could not believe that the ingredients statement did not include raspberry.

Participants struggled to contextualize the Dandelion craft chocolate and likened it to non-chocolate products, such as cologne, bath products, wine or coffee. Several consumers noted the uniqueness of the package. They decided very quickly that there was a personal affect to the product where it stated that the roast profile was created by Chiann and the beans were sourced by Greg (see Image 2 https://doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 ). A female consumer said:

The thing it reminds me of a lot though is like Lush cosmetics and soaps and stuff. Since on their products the person who makes the actual soap has a sticker with their face on it in a cartoon. They stick it on the side and it’s like, “Made by Gerry” or this one was made by Susan on this day at this time. Something about that I always think is really entertaining. It’s kind of the same thing to me. You get an idea that there was a person who actually made this .

Consumers compared craft chocolate to wine or coffee, conceptually, in terms of flavor, packaging, sustainability labels, and mouthfeel. They interpreted the cacao origin as the vineyard and the cacao variety as the grape variety. A male consumer said of the Lindt chocolate bar:

[It] was more adult flavor, much better by any measurable standard, I think. Kinda sweet for me. It's more like comparing chess to checkers, maybe. You know what I mean? The flavor profile's more multidimensional—it was more like when you're drinkin' wine or somethin' like that .

We expected consumers to be excited by craft chocolate because the NCA survey found that novelty is one of the main drivers for fine chocolate purchases [ 9 ]. We were surprised by the comparisons consumers made with cologne, bath products, wine, and coffee. It is noteworthy that these comparison product categories can also be divided into mainstream, premium and craft segments.

Important attributes for American premium chocolate consumers

Overall, focus group participants used a variety of attributes to judge the quality of chocolate bar stickers that were mapped and products consumed during the focus group. Surprisingly, even when participants ate the chocolate bars, they used mostly “extrinsic cues,” such as packaging, rather than “intrinsic cues,” such as flavor, to judge product quality [ 66 ]. This is in line with much of the wine marketing research [ 67 – 69 ], but opposes classic consumer behavior works, which cite the importance of intrinsic cues in products such as meat, and consumer goods like ground coffee and shampoo [ 66 , 70 ]. The attributes found desirable by American premium chocolate consumers can be organized using the framework provided by Darby & Karni [ 71 ] who renamed extrinsic attributes as “search” and intrinsic attributes as “experience” and added a third “credence” attribute, for which the true value cannot be verified and they are impressed upon the product by the consumer [ 71 , 72 ]. Thomson et al.’s [ 20 ] conceptualization framework compliments that of Darby & Karni [ 71 ] wherein abstract conceptualizations are credence attributes, which in our study is trust; functional or experience attributes which in our study is utility; and emotional, also an experience attribute, which in our study is joy. The relationship among these attributes are shown in Fig 2 and will be discussed in the order of search (i.e. segmentation, price, availability, packaging), credence (i.e. trust), and experience (i.e. joy and/or utility) attributes below.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177.g002

Search attribute: Segmentation

Fig 3 shows the product space produced by the Multiple Factor Analysis of the 24 usable participant projective maps. In the map, there are three main sections that are aptly described by the consensual words shown in bolded red: cheap, American, available, and candy on the bottom right quadrant; specialty, artisan, fair trade, organic, flavor, and dark chocolate on the bottom left; and then individually-wrapped and special occasion on the top middle. These segments will henceforth be called candy, premium and special occasion chocolate.

Chocolate products are shown in italicized black, consensual words ( p < 0.05) are in bold red, and non-consensual words are in gray.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177.g003

Focus group discussions further elucidated how participants segmented the chocolate products. Instead of using marketing jargon, participants separated the chocolate products based upon age-appropriateness, calling the bottom right or candy segment, “kids” chocolate; the bottom left or premium chocolate, “adult” chocolate; and the top middle segment, special occasion chocolate, “grandma” chocolate. A female consumer described how she differentiated the bottom right and bottom left quadrants:

Hershey goes for kids, bright, I think of them as playground colors where these are more coffee shop setting. Like a little more fancy .

A male consumer explained his map, saying:

Over here is Grandma's chocolates, the Whitman's sampler. You go to old folks; this is what they buy .

The candy segment is characterized by the presence of Hershey and Mars products, such as the Hershey Kiss, M&M products, and classic Hershey bars. The premium segment is composed of what the NCA considers premium chocolates and fine chocolates [ 9 ]. An interesting finding is that the segments that consumers created, candy, premium, and special occasion, differ from the NCA segments of mainstream, premium and fine chocolate, because they were organized by purchase and/or eating occasion rather than price. Participants placed special occasion chocolate in its own segment, which the NCA bundles together with premium chocolate [ 9 ]. Additionally, craft chocolates mapped directly onto premium chocolates and were not differentiated by premium chocolate consumers, indicating that premium chocolate consumers place craft chocolate in the same category as premium chocolate.

Search attribute: Price

Price was a large factor in separating the products. On the top left quadrant of the product map, the words “high quality” and “expensive” overlay one another and are located opposite the map from the word “cheap.” This indicates that price and quality are highly associated: if the chocolate is expensive, it must be high quality; if the chocolate is cheap, it must be low quality. A female consumer explained:

These are a little more sophisticated and so my brain just thinks they must taste better they must be higher quality. Also, they’re more expensive so I think it’s better .

This finding aligns with previous research, which shows that across several products, including wine, price is considered one of the most important extrinsic product cues [ 67 , 73 – 78 ].

The phrases “high-quality” and “expensive” are equidistant from premium and special occasion chocolate, which indicates that both of these segments of chocolate are perceived as expensive and high quality. The eloquent relationship between expensive and high-quality demonstrates Lichtenstein et al.’s price-quality schema, or the consumers’ propensity to use price to make generalized attributions about the product [ 74 ]. The close distance of “expensive” and “high quality” to the special occasion segment, which is usually gifted, likely indicates prestige sensitivity, where a consumer purchases an expensive and high-quality chocolate to give to someone as a gift and demonstrate their expensive taste [ 74 ].

Our findings also align with those of the NCA survey, in which American non-core fine chocolate consumers listed “expensive” as their one-word first impression of fine chocolate [ 9 ]. This was also true of young Finnish and Australian chocolate consumers who believed that price was a good indicator of chocolate quality [ 79 , 80 ].

Search attribute: Availability

In general, the location where chocolates can be purchased was a quality indicator for participants. On the product map, “candy” is located next to the word “available”, which was a code word for locations such as the gas station, drug store, supermarket, and movie theater, where chocolate products are readily-available. The code word “unavailable”, while not consensual, is located among the premium chocolates. If the chocolate is readily-available, then it is low quality; if the chocolate is obscure, difficult to find, or only found in a few shops or online, it is high quality. A female consumer explained:

…Then I had this weird section that was like middle of the road. You could definitely find it at a [national drug store]. You might not find it at a gas station, but still pretty accessible and affordable but higher quality than a Hershey’s bar. Then I had the more exclusive, like this might be harder to find. Where you might have to go to a [regional, traditional supermarket] or a [national natural market] or someplace even just a specialty store. I feel like some random—you can find these at [a national discount store] where they have the nice chocolate for some reason .

A male consumer clarified the connection between ready availability and price:

[T]he more traditional chocolates, because they're so readily available. They're not hard to find. They might even be less expensive .

Product scarcity as an indicator of quality is a well-known concept in consumer literature [ 81 ]. Dandelion Chocolate has admitted that they do not sell their chocolates at drug stores in San Francisco because it would directly conflict with Dandelion’s aspirations to be seen as an “exquisite” and “craftsman” brand [ 2 ]. Instead, Dandelion Chocolate is available online, in the Dandelion cafe, and from specialty shops, which maintains their exclusivity [ 2 ]. Research with Mexican craft beer consumers found that some consumers would like to find craft beer everywhere, whereas for others, the act of going out and looking for beer in small, specialized stores is part of the craft experience [ 82 ]. In the NCA survey, chocolate consumers selected all of the locations where they purchase chocolate [ 9 ]. Nearly half of mainstream chocolate consumers purchase most of their chocolate at grocery stores compared to only a quarter of premium chocolate consumers who are also far more likely to purchase their chocolate at specialty chocolate shops [ 9 ].

Search attribute: Packaging

The importance of packaging was demonstrated in the projective mapping activity, where it was the only attribute available to judge quality on the stickers, and in the focus group itself when consumers had a chance to look at five of the chocolate packages up close. In these two activities, it became clear that product packaging is critical to first impressions, initial and ongoing product interactions, and the formation of long-lasting relationships between the brand, product, and consumer [ 83 ]. Participants were clear that if they have not tasted a chocolate before, then they rely on packaging to convey whether that product is a worthwhile purchase. A male consumer stated:

A big one for me is just packaging, too, if you can’t try it before you buy it. I do look at the packaging, and I will choose something just solely based on what it says on it, obviously .

Our study findings are consistent with Australian chocolate consumer attitudes that product liking is affected by the expectations generated by the packaging [ 25 ]. Throughout all four focus groups, participants opted to discuss packaging extensively and appeared to have a higher emotional attachment to the packaging than the taste of the product [ 25 ].

Chocolate or cocoa origin.

Participants considered European chocolates to be higher quality than American. In the product map ( Fig 2 ), the descriptor “European”, while not consensual, is geographically closer to the word “quality” than the descriptor, “American.” This reinforces the focus group discussion in which a female consumer described her product map:

I said basic American candy bars, but I like Ghirardelli a lot also and Lindor. I like Lindt and Ritter. I like Ritter bars. Yeah, they’re not as sweet, I don’t think. It’s more like the European where you get the rich chocolate and you don’t get just that sugary—where, I think, the American bars, you really just—sometimes it’s more of a sugar high than a chocolate high .

The NCA survey found that 45% of premium chocolate consumers believe European chocolate is better than American, versus 39% who thought there was no difference and 16% who believed American-made is better [ 9 ]. A Belgian choice experiment revealed that country of manufacture was very important to chocolate lovers and was one of their most important considerations when purchasing chocolate [ 18 ]. Belgian chocolate was highly-preferred in the study, likely due to nationalistic tendencies and Belgium’s history of having invented the filled chocolate bonbon or praline [ 18 , 84 ]. While many studies have investigated consumer preference for cocoa country of origin, this was not addressed by consumers in our study [ 24 , 85 ]. Premium chocolate consumers may be more familiar with traditional countries of chocolate manufacture, such as Belgium and Switzerland, rather than the flavor associated with origin chocolates. Leissle explains that “Belgian chocolate” has an advantage in the marketplace over “Ghanaian cocoa” because chocolate eaters have become accustomed to flavors associated with characteristic chocolate styles rather than flavor associated with cocoa origin: Swiss is creamy from additional cocoa butter, Belgian is soft milk, while American is milky or slightly sour [ 86 ].

Handcrafted.

Consumers distinguished between products that appeared handcrafted versus commercial chocolates. The distinction was made based upon the packaging, type of chocolate (dark or milk), and flavors. A male consumer said:

I think it's also to give you a feel of these are made in small batches by hand, and these are packaged by hand, and these labels are applied by hand .

Another male consumer explained the commercial chocolates on his projective map:

There's a sort of a corner for mass market chocolates that had generally a lot of milk, sugar, or other additives, not necessarily that much cocoa .

This finding aligns with Leissle’s [ 4 ] work on the use of “artisan” as brand by craft chocolate makers. Her textual discourse of 129 craft chocolate websites found that 49% of craft makers self-name as “artisan” and the only common definition for artisan is that it is not “industrial” [ 4 ]. If craft chocolate makers succeed at communicating a hand-crafted aesthetic, they effectively convey that they are small in size and not industrial.

Cocoa percentage indicates high quality.

Consumers stated that products with the cocoa percentage written on the package indicates that the chocolate bar is high quality. While not found to be a consensual term, “cocoa content” was mapped among the premium chocolates in the product map. A male consumer said:

Just from a packaging standpoint, I like that they say, “70 percent.” I think that speaks to the quality of the bar. I thought it was a rich chocolate bar. You tasted the cocoa in the bar, which I think speaks to the quality of the chocolate, too. It was sweet, but there was that typical dark chocolate bitterness with it, which I love dark chocolate, too. I thought it was great .

In the NCA survey, 53% of premium chocolate consumers and 73% of fine chocolate consumers said that cacao percentage was important and had a significant influence on their purchase decisions [ 9 ]. Premium chocolate consumers preferred a cacao percentage between 71–80%, whereas fine chocolate consumers preferred percentage levels of 75% or more [ 9 ]. In the FCIA consumer work, chocolate enthusiasts overwhelmingly preferred dark chocolate and cited cacao percentage as very important to their purchase decision [ 6 ]. In a Spanish consumer test that compared the same chocolates with and without packaging, three consumer segments emerged: consumers who would buy a product because it has cacao percentage listed, consumers who are indifferent to cacao percentage, and consumers who are less likely to buy the chocolate because the cacao percentage is listed [ 87 ].

Chocolate with cocoa percentage written on the label is typically dark and consumers strongly associated dark chocolate with quality. A female consumer explained:

I think of milk chocolate as lower quality. I don’t know why but dark chocolate for me is more exquisite…

Chocolate consumer focus groups held in Pennsylvania and New York also found that participants associated dark chocolate with good taste and social distinction [ 88 ].

Gold color indicates high quality.

Participants focused on the color gold incorporated into packaging as an indicator of high quality and high price. The lettering on the Lindt 70%, Green & Black’s, and the Dandelion package is gold, and the inner foil wrap of the Green & Black’s bar and the Dandelion bar is gold (see Image 2 https://doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 ). While the main colors of the Lindt package are black and white, and the Green & Black’s package is black and brown, gold is the dominant color of the outer and inner packaging of the Dandelion bar. A female consumer said of the Lindt 70% bar:

Yeah. The packaging, the gold on there I mean it’s a little fancy. You need to like this because it is in gold. [Laughter] You know? This is high class, really good .

Several consumers referenced the fictional character Willy Wonka and the golden ticket in his chocolate bar from the children’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [ 89 ] and the film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [ 90 ]. A female consumer said in reference to the Green & Black’s bar:

…the gold packaging with the gold foil is like a Willy Wonka moment. [Chuckling] I don’t know. It just feels really special .

Based upon these focus groups, we propose that for American premium chocolate consumers, in the context of premium or craft chocolate, the gold color on the outside of the package, as the lettering, as the inner packaging foil, or as a theme of the entire package, may indicate high quality and a high price.

To the authors’ knowledge, there is no published academic literature wherein the color gold in packaging is linked to the perception of expensive or high-quality products by consumers. In general, there are very few published color-related consumer studies, which is likely because color is highly specific to the type of product being sold, the brand personality desired, and the culture in which the product is being sold [ 83 , 91 – 94 ]. Research has shown that package color has a high impact on consumer perception of product quality, brand personality, familiarity, and purchase intent, because color associations are triggered through referential meaning, which happens consciously and subconsciously [ 92 , 95 – 97 ]. One way that referential meaning functions is that a strong brand is associated with a distinctive color, which becomes inextricably linked to the product class and is eventually expected to appear in other brands within that product class [ 98 – 100 ]. In our focus groups, the color gold was strongly associated with the fictional character Willy Wonka and the golden ticket he placed in his chocolate bars, as well as high quality and high price associations. Therefore, we propose that Willy Wonka may have been the first to communicate the association of gold and quality chocolate to the generations of children and adults who read the book or watched the movie [ 89 , 90 ].

Thick foil indicates high quality.

In addition to color, consumers found the thickness of the foil to be of tactile and practical importance. A female consumer compared the thin foil of the Lindt bar to the thicker foil of the Green & Black’s and Dandelion:

This one also doesn’t rip as easy. Those are, I mean you could just breathe on them and they’ll just come apart in your hands. You’re like, “Well now I hate to—I have to eat the whole thing.” This one is the nice folding ability, really into the foil .

Consumers fixated on the thickness of the foil as an indicator of quality and lengthy discussions arose in the women’s focus groups regarding foil functionality. Thick foil allows consumers to purchase a tablet chocolate bar, eat a small portion, then wrap it up to eat more later without worry that the foil will tear and expose their purses or bags to chocolate pieces.

Previous packaging studies have focused mainly on outer packaging, but Krishna et al. [ 83 ] introduced a new taxonomy to packaging, in which they describe an outer, intermediate, and inner packaging. They explain that all three parts of the packaging are important to create a streamlined communication of the brand identity of the product. In our study, the outer chocolate package was either plastic film (Hershey), cardboard (Lindt 70%), or paper (Green & Black’s, Endangered Species, Dandelion); the intermediate package was either not present (Hershey) or a silver (Lindt 70%) or gold (Green & Black’s, Endangered Species, Dandelion) foil; and the inner packaging was the mold shape used for the chocolate. Our results demonstrate that for premium chocolate consumers, intermediate and outer packaging are of great importance. Interestingly, participants did not discuss characteristics of the chocolate mold itself.

Credence attribute: Trust

Consumers want to trust the chocolate products they purchase, however, there are a variety of proxies that communicate trust. Some consumers found sustainability labels to be important guides for trustworthiness, while others found sustainability labels to be a reason to distrust a product. Most consumers trusted a chocolate bar that communicated a semblance of “meaning” through a story, promotion of a cause, or a person’s name. A male consumer explained his complex rationale for distrusting American government certifications and instead trusting brands:

I just still try to make good decisions as far as my health goes, but I'm more concerned with my kid…I grew up in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina… It's a Marine Corps base. I lost both my parents because the water there was about 20,000 times the legal limit for perc. In my lifetime, the government hasn't really looked out for me that well, so I feel more like it's my responsibility to figure out what I'm putting in my body and the decisions I'm making. I'm not saying regulations are bad; I'm just saying that we do have an awful lot of them, and a lot of times, they're not really getting enforced, and we don't find out until later, or we spend a lot of our tax money or things like the EPA, and they dump all the poison in the Animas River last year. Doesn't always work according to plan……That's why…I don't know if that Hershey's bar is organic or non-organic, but I know they've been sellin' them for a dang long time. I feel pretty safe buying anything with the Hershey name on it, not that somethin' can't go wrong, but it's like Heinz, or something like that .

Sustainability labels as a proxy for trust.

Premium chocolate consumers varied dramatically in their knowledge and importance of sustainability labels, which was directly linked to whether that label served as a proxy for trust. Some consumers knew the exact definition of USDA Organic and fair trade certifications, while others had never heard of the terms before. Still others were confused by the meanings of organic and fair trade and thought they were the same thing.

Some premium chocolate consumers clearly understood Fair Trade and Organic certification and adhered to purchasing only items with these certifications. A male consumer said:

Right, organic. It's important to me to have organic produce and organic foods, because I know it hasn't been sprayed with pesticides and chemicals. Fair trade tells me that the purchase of the cocoa beans, they paid a fair price for them, that they haven't taken advantage of the farmer. Those labels are on just about anything I buy .

A female consumer explained that buying certified chocolate was her compromise for not being able to purchase locally-grown chocolate:

I think it’s appealing, because we don’t grow cocoa beans here. You can’t, like coffee also. I’m a big coffee drinker. You want to know that, because I can’t get it locally, because I want to use it and may as well support something that is at least trying to be environmentally conscious. If they have to put all the little stickers on it, then so be it. I think it’s a good thing .

These consumers were rigid in their belief in sustainability certifications and told us convincingly that they regularly purchased products with sustainability certifications. The NCA survey found that 81% of consumers highly influenced by certifications are willing to pay more for those certifications [ 9 ]. Interestingly, the FCIA focus groups found that the importance of sustainability certifications to chocolate enthusiasts varied by US region. Seattle consumers stated that certifications were very important and they would pay more for the them, while only half of participants in San Francisco were motivated to purchase certified chocolates [ 6 ].

For the two women participants with adopted children from developing countries as well as other focus group members, fair trade was far more important than organic certification because to them it directly impacted people in developing countries. One of the women said in response to whether she would buy chocolate with sustainability certifications:

…I wouldn’t buy just for the organic part of it at all. The fair trade I would. I also would be—I have two children adopted from Guatemala so I know all about the fair trade. Yeah. That would attract me more than the organic. No. I agree [organic is] just a marketing thing…

The NCA survey of American consumers found that fair trade certification is more important to millennials, yet engaging in fair labor practices without mention of the certification is more important to the baby boomer generation [ 9 ]. Fair trade certification was found to be more important than an organic label to Flemish and French chocolate consumers [ 17 , 23 ]. Another Belgian experiment found that consumers preferred the fair trade label over the fair trade and organic label combination, indicating a strong preference for fair trade over organic [ 101 ]. In a choice experiment, fair trade chocolate was preferred over non-fair trade chocolate by Belgian chocolate lovers, all things considered equal [ 18 ].

Overall, European studies have shown that fair trade certification resonates with consumers because consumers feel strongly about issues related to the exploitation of female and child labor, general working conditions, and human rights [ 20 , 101 , 102 ]. In the NCA survey, cacao farming and chocolate production practices were the least important to mainstream chocolate consumers and the most important to fine chocolate consumers [ 9 ]. In our study, some American premium chocolate consumers were concerned about purchasing fair trade products so that producers received a larger portion of the sales.

Sustainability label confusion.

In addition to consumers with high knowledge and importance of sustainability labels, there were also consumers who were profoundly confused by the label meaning. A female consumer said while eating the Green & Black’s chocolate:

Maybe this is a silly question. What does organic mean here? Is it an ingredient or what? I mean, it’s a silly question. I mean, they put it specifically, like after the brand, that it’s organic. What does that mean?

Still other consumers thought that fair trade and organic were essentially the same thing. A female consumer said:

…I know this isn’t true, but when I see the word organic, I almost feel like it’s synonymous with fair trade .

In the United States, certifications that can be used on chocolate packaging include Fair Trade, USDA Organic, Rainforest Alliance, and Non-GMO Project Verified [ 103 , 104 ]. In our focus groups, consumers paid the most attention to the USDA Organic and Fair Trade certification logos. The USDA Organic seal is verified by a third party and may only be used if the product meets three main criteria: produced without excluded methods; produced using allowed substances; and overseen by a USDA National Organic Program-authorized certifying agent [ 105 ]. The purpose of fair trade certification is to bring transparency to global commodity chains with the overarching goal of transferring capital to producers in developing countries [ 106 ]. Fair trade is also a third party certification because the standards are set and implemented by four different organizations [ 106 , 107 ].

Our findings with American consumers align with European studies that have tested consumers’ ability to identify sustainability certification labels. In a Belgian experiment, 60% of Flemish consumers were able to correctly identify the Fair Trade label, whereas only 6% correctly identified the EU Organic label [ 17 ]. In the same study, 16% of Flemish consumers thought that organic chocolate used fair trade cocoa, while 11% of consumers thought that fair trade chocolate caused less pollution, and only 20% of consumers correctly indicated that fair trade chocolate uses sustainably produced cocoa [ 17 ]. In a survey with Italian consumers, 44% ticked the box, “I find it difficult to interpret the information on the label” when looking at Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, and CO 2 reduction labels [ 20 ]. A study of 126 Brazilian consumers found that 73% wanted their chocolate labeled with certifications and 79% said they would pay more for it, yet few recognized the certification seals: only 56% correctly identified organic, 36.5% for origin, 15.9% for Rainforest Alliance [ 85 ]. A survey comparing German and UK sustainable consumers found that nearly all UK consumers are familiar with the fair trade label, compared to 90.3% of German consumers [ 24 ]. In the same study, 41% of UK consumers were familiar with the organic label, compared to 97% of German consumers [ 24 ]. Sustainability label consumer confusion appears to be an international issue and American craft chocolate makers have reacted to this by rejecting the use of sustainability labels and instead opting to use direct trade systems they organize themselves [ 5 ].

Sustainability labels are not a proxy for trust.

For some consumers, fair trade and organic labels were not important and instead consumers were neutral to them. As one male consumer put it:

If I like the chocolate, and I can afford the chocolate, I’ll buy the chocolate. I think it’s great to—this is all political to me, and I’m not naturally a huge political person. I care about the world. I care about humanity, generally, [laughter] but when I go to buy a chocolate bar, I honestly just don’t think about it. I don’t think about this stuff .

For other consumers, the sustainability labels raised red flags and they were skeptical of greenwashing [ 108 ]. These consumers were not sure if they could trust that a company would certify for several labels and execute them all in a meaningful way. A male consumer:

Yeah, I’m questioning, are they just trying to sell their chocolate, or are they actually supporting all these, and if they’re supporting, is it in a good way? I really have no idea, and that would take a lot of research to figure that out. I’m just trying to get a chocolate bar is my bottom line, so I question all of that right now, to be honest. I don’t know .

Rousseau’s [ 17 ] survey and choice experiment found that a majority of Flemish chocolate consumers were indifferent to organic certification and they were willing to pay less for chocolate labeled organic than chocolate with no organic certification. Ultimately, 42.9% of study participants believed organic certification was a marketing tool, while 32.5% thought that fair trade was a marketing tool [ 17 ]. Rousseau [ 17 ] concluded that consumer willingness-to-pay for these certifications is strongly linked to the product being considered, the country, and region. Additionally, consumers who eat chocolate frequently were found to value fair trade and organic certification more than infrequent chocolate eaters [ 17 ].

The FCIA work found that for chocolate enthusiasts and connoisseurs, certified fair trade is more important than direct trade, however, any certification would not impact their willingness to purchase chocolate [ 6 ]. One of the six segments found in the American Midwestern millennial candy bar study was the anti-organic group, which composed 11% of the sample [ 27 ]. They had a strong preference for high fat chocolate, no preference for “clean” labels, and a distinctive dislike and distrust for organic and non-GMO products [ 27 ]. Our finding of sustainability certification neutrality in chocolate products aligns with Belgian and American research, which may be because consumers feel most strongly about sustainability certifications on fresh produce rather than chocolate [ 109 ].

Price and flavor are more important than sustainability certifications.

Several consumers expressed that they prioritize price and flavor ahead of sustainability certifications in chocolate purchase scenarios. A female consumer explained:

Price is also another thing…especially on a college budget, organic a lot of times is way more expensive. You say, “Whoa. What the heck? It tastes kinda the same to me.” I don’t think there’s a difference and it’s really much more expensive. All right I’m just gonna go with the other one. If I really can’t taste the difference. All right we’re just gonna go with the other one .

One male consumer stated when asked about purchasing chocolate with sustainability certifications:

Sometimes, but when I do, it tends to be more a decision more about—that I've compared it to some other foods and found the quality to be better. I buy yogurt pretty often, Greek yogurt, and that there's a—I think Stonyfield makes some organic Greek yogurt that it just tastes really good compared to the Giant store brand Greek yogurt, so I buy it that way, and I guess some—it's nice that it's organic, but the primary motivation is that it's simply just really good .

Our findings are consistent with several choice experiments from which “willingness to pay” and “willingness to buy” values are calculated, which have found price to be a significant barrier to purchasing products with sustainability certifications [ 110 – 115 ]. French chocolate consumers participated in a Becker, DeGroot and Marschak auction that later segmented them into three groups: 42% of the sample was very sensitive to price and the least sensitive to organic and fair trade labels; 41% of the sample unconditionally adhered to organic and fair trade labels and their willingness to pay was very high; 17% of the sample had the highest willingness to pay and only purchased organic and fair trade subject to the taste of the product [ 23 ]. Similar results were found in a choice experiment with UK and German chocolate consumers, where in comparing various levels of price, cocoa origin country, country of chocolate manufacture and sustainability labels, nearly 50% of both groups of consumers selected price as the most important attribute in their purchase decisions [ 24 ]. Surprisingly, even when English consumers were informed of the injustices in the cocoa supply chain, they admitted that they were unwilling to pay a price premium of 10–15% for chocolate if it was produced in a more socially responsible way [ 116 ]. In a choice experiment, Belgian chocolate consumers positively valued both taste and ethical considerations, but taste proxies such as product type (boxed chocolate or chocolate bar), chocolate type (white, milk or dark), or praline filling (alcohol) ultimately dominated their decision making [ 18 ]. In the FCIA research, chocolate enthusiasts said that taste was the most significant reason to purchase craft chocolate [ 6 ].

Ultimately, the most important indicator of whether a premium chocolate consumer found chocolate products with sustainability certifications desirable was what the sustainability label meant to the consumer. In our study, sustainability label meaning and importance appear to be in a 2X2 matrix, with importance on the x-axis and meaning on the y-axis. If the label means safe or fair, and the consumer values safe or fair, then it is important. If it does not mean safe or fair, and the consumer values safe or fair, then the label is unimportant, and the consumer is unlikely to purchase it. This meaning and importance matrix is consistent with Carrigan and Attila’s “Consumer attitudes to ethical purchasing” 2X2 matrix developed from their focus group work in the UK, in which they identified four types of consumers: Caring and Ethical, Confused and Uncertain, Cynical, and Disinterested and Oblivious [ 116 ].

Other researchers have proposed consumer decision making models of sustainably-certified products, however, none of these models incorporate trust [ 102 , 115 , 117 – 119 ]. Our findings made clear that trust or mistrust of sustainability certifications are important credence attributes for premium chocolate consumers, which was also reported for Italian chocolate consumers [ 20 ].

Finding “meaning” in a product.

Whether sustainability labels were important to them or not, consumers searched for a semblance of purpose in their chocolate bars. The “meaning” focus group participants described is what Pink refers to as the “integration of meaning” [ 120 , 121 ]. Modern consumers look beyond traditional marketing techniques and search for meaning through a story, shared values, and committed personal interaction [ 121 ].

Focus group participants were excited by packages that told stories outright, such as the Endangered Species chocolate bar, which has an image of an endangered animal on the front and a story about the animal on the inner label of the bar (see Image 2 https://doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 ). In addition to being told a story, consumers were also excited to imagine stories about the people listed on the Dandelion bar or create ideas about the chef pictured on the back of the Lindt chocolate bar. A male consumer said:

These ones that we’re looking at, I find it interesting because it’s almost like a story to be told, some type of description on ‘em, versus you get a Snicker’s or a Reese’s, I mean it’s just a Snicker’s or Reese’s .

Storytelling marketing or “content marketing” has existed as a concept for more than 30 years [ 122 ]. This type of marketing applies well to craft chocolate wherein a story can be about how cocoa beans were sourced or how the chocolate itself is made. In her work, Leissle found a story to be part of the artisan chocolate construct because artisan chocolate companies typically have a person who can share the story with the consumer, which ultimately forms a connection [ 4 ].

Focus group participants expressed their strong desire to purchase chocolates that benefit a cause because it allowed them to share their values with the company and reduce guilty feelings that they had for indulging in chocolate. A female consumer explained:

I think it would be the donation portion or the donation part of it that would drive me to that one rather than—I don’t necessarily care about organic…I don’t care about gluten-free. GMO, Eh, whatever. [Chuckles] I do like the aspect of, Well, okay, and it sounds silly, but I’m buying this chocolate and I’m doing something. It makes you feel good. That’s probably why I would pick that over—

“Cause-based marketing” was conceptualized over 30 years ago to describe the linkage of fund raising for the benefit of a cause to the purchase of a firm’s products [ 123 ]. This is likely explained by the fact that ethical consumption, the act of using ones political, spiritual, environmental, social or other motives for selecting one product over another, has been on the rise for the past 50 years [ 124 ]. Langen [ 119 ] used a choice experiment to investigate how consumers perceived giving donations as part of a coffee purchase. In the study, 70% of respondents had a strong preference for fair trade and organic production, but disliked cause-related marketing, while 27% of participants preferred cause-related coffee to sustainability certifications [ 119 ]. This 27% of participants had a significant and positive willingness-to-pay of 0.55 euro to support a cause [ 119 ]. In contrast, nearly all of the premium chocolate focus group consumers demonstrated high interest in purchasing chocolate for a cause and were particularly excited to support endangered species.

Focus group consumers expressed guilty feelings about purchasing an indulgent chocolate bar for themselves. We propose that purchasing chocolate that benefits a cause reduced this guilt in a process known as guilt appeal [ 125 ]. Previous work has suggested that cause-related marketing works best for products that are perceived as frivolous, such as chocolate, rather than products that are a need, like detergent [ 126 ].

Focus group participants found meaning in the names written on the chocolate bars as either the brand (e.g. Hershey’s), the cocoa sourcer (e.g. Greg), or cocoa roaster (e.g. Chiann) (see Image 2 https://doi.org/10.26207/a863-pp02 ). The name “Greg” is listed on the back package of the Dandelion chocolate bar and focus group participants crafted positive stories about Greg. In lieu of an actual personal human interaction, this mark of a name represented a personal connection and effectively communicates everything that Dandelion wants to convey about their size and handcraftedness [ 4 ]. A female consumer explained:

I was assuming that Greg is the grower, picker, supplier of these cocoa beans that make that chocolate bar and possibly his sugar plantation. I’m not sure…but I was gonna say it’s kind of bethel…it makes it sound…like it’s a craft, like more of a small operation, I picture Greg with his stuff, his plants, and making chocolate…I would think of it more like a labor of love, making these delicious chocolates .

The Hershey brand name communicates Hershey company values [ 127 ]. A male consumer stated:

I don't know Milton Hershey personally, but I know he built that school with all that money. I've got close personal friends that went to that school, and they get their education paid for life, so just how horrible is Milton Hershey? Is he in the Dominican Republic abusing people making them? I don't know. I tend to think not…

The association of a person’s name with a chocolate bar or using a person’s name as a brand, helps to form a brand personality [ 91 ]. We postulate that this set of human characteristics associated with a brand is part of the personal affect that creates a relationship between the consumer and the chocolate bar [ 128 ]. As the relationship continues, brand loyalty is achieved and ultimately, brand love [ 129 , 130 ]. Nearly 40% of Fortune 500 brands use a person or place name to help create a relationship, so this phenomenon is not unique to chocolate [ 131 ]. However, our focus group results suggest that in the context of chocolate, a brand name reassures consumers that what they are buying is trustworthy and was made by a person.

Focus group participants created meaning and a personal affect by crafting stories about Greg and his chocolate sourcing. In so doing, they picked up on the three main attributes of the Dandelion brand: intimate, craftsman, and exquisite [ 2 ]. In work with Costa Rican cocoa production, supply chain management, and marketing, Haynes et al. [ 132 ] found that integrating meaning into cocoa and chocolate products could help chocolate companies and products stand apart. They viewed integration of meaning as an achievable approach for agile small producers and chocolate companies, and a method that effectively communicates what certifications attempt to communicate, without the drawbacks of expense and confusion [ 132 ]. The concept of meaning aligns with Leissle’s artisan concept because both attribute a person behind to the company [ 4 ]. Research has revealed that consumers drink craft beer for the meaning it conveys, which much like craft chocolate, allows a consumer to build a unique identity, in comparison to mainstream industrial beer or chocolate consumption [ 4 , 82 ].

Trust is an important attribute of a chocolate bar for premium chocolate consumers. Trust is mentioned frequently in consumer literature and is defined as “a particular level of the subjective probability with which an agent assesses that another agent or group of agents will perform a particular action” [ 133 ]. Gambetta states that when we say we trust a product, “we implicitly mean that the probability that [it] will perform an action that is beneficial or at least not detrimental to us is high enough for us to consider engaging in some form of cooperation with [it]” [ 133 ]. Focus group participants wanted to trust the chocolate bar they were consuming and discussed sustainability labels or an absence of sustainability labels as a form of trust. Whether consumers found sustainability labels to be trust proxies or not, most sought to find meaning in their chocolate products, in the form of a story, a cause, or a personal affect.

Experience attributes: Joy and/or utility

In addition to trust, consumers look for experience attributes, utility and/or joy, in their chocolate. We believe that joy and utility may have a cyclical relationship that depends on the consumer need state and at some point, the lines may become blurred.

Chocolate is linked to holidays, celebrations, and gifts.

Consumers associate chocolate with specific holidays, such as Halloween, Easter, Christmas, and other celebration and gift giving. As a male consumer explained:

…chocolate and sweets in general are tied to some of my most favorite memories of my life, even growing up, because they were always tied in conjunction with, usually, a holiday, or a ceremony, or a specific event…. these amazing memories of growing up, it was connected with it almost exclusively, outside of any other food, outside of maybe turkey for Thanksgiving .

Chocolate, holidays, celebrations, and gifts go hand-in-hand internationally. Italian chocolate consumers strongly associate chocolate with Easter and Valentine’s Day [ 134 ]. Focus groups with French and American (New York and Pennsylvania) chocolate consumers showed that French consumers use chocolate gifts to affirm social ties during celebration, gratitude, or loss, while Americans also give chocolate gifts, but less readily, prioritizing cost, presentation, and brands [ 88 ]. Additionally, a majority of the American focus group participants linked chocolate to childhood and shared their memories of eating chocolate in birthday cakes, cookies, candy bars or ice cream at holidays [ 88 ].

Nostalgia through packaging, flavor, taste, and mouthfeel.

Our work suggests that because children consume chocolate at a young age and it is associated with mostly positive events, chocolate may become associated with positive feelings. Throughout a lifetime, as children grow into adults with purchasing power, they may seek out chocolate attributes that remind them of their youth or nostalgia. Nostalgia is defined as “a preference toward objects that were more common when one was younger” [ 135 ]. These nostalgic attributes come from packaging, flavor, taste, and mouthfeel. Several participants associated chocolates with Grandma’s house in the Special Occasion section of their product maps ( Fig 2 ). A female consumer explained:

Just to go back really quickly to the idea of the box of chocolates…I get a little nostalgic at least with the Whitman samplers. Because that was what my grandmother would get for everything. We’d go to grandma’s and she’d have the box there…There’s sometimes when I’m feeling like particularly nostalgic or I want a little—I’ll buy one of those, the small boxes, the ones—because—but you know what you’re gonna get in that box .

Focus group participants discussed at length how the Hershey bar of their youth had an inner-foil package that was wrapped with a brown paper label. When sampling the Hershey bar, a female consumer said:

You know it’s a Hershey bar. You asked a little bit about the packaging. Well, I remember when the packaging, it used to come in—it was paper and then there was foil and you had to unwrap it. I mean, I know this is the way things are going and obviously it’s cheaper and everything, but I wish—the packaging just seems—it’s not as big a deal as opening a Hershey bar, as it used to be…Yeah. It’s like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, ‘cause you had to open the paper and you peeled back the foil, and, oh, there’s the golden ticket

When consumers thought of the special two-part process of opening the Hershey bar of their childhood, once again, they thought of Willy Wonka [ 89 , 90 ]. Our results may suggest that because Willy Wonka is introduced when children are at a young age, through both a book and film, it may be embedded with positive, nostalgic emotions that carry on through adulthood.

Nostalgia was not only important to packaging, but also flavor. A female consumer explained while eating the Hershey bar:

I just feel like it’s such a basic bar, but satisfies so many of my needs. The cocoa just lingers in my mouth. It’s the perfect amount of sweetness. Not too sweet especially with the morning or in the afternoon. Just the taste associates with childhood memories and s’mores or chocolate covered pretzels, or that whole thing I do when I was a kid…

Research with Italian consumers revealed that some of the main chocolate thoughts in diaries of “chocolate lovers” were nostalgic. Participants waxed poetic about eating Nutella and associated it with their youth [ 134 ]. Australian chocolate consumers revealed that Cadbury made them feel nostalgic [ 80 ]. Based upon our findings, Nutella is to Italian chocolate lovers as Cadbury is to Australian chocolate consumers and Hershey bars are to American premium chocolate consumers.

Chocolate is a unique specialty food because unlike beer or coffee, it is consumed from a young age onwards. Our focus group discussions revealed that when that child becomes an adult, their tastes may mature from milk to dark chocolate, or even from Hershey’s to Lindt to Dandelion chocolate. However, as Mintel consumer research confirmed, this same consumer would likely still eat milk chocolate to remember their youth or grandma’s house [ 16 ]. We propose that there may be a taste progression for some consumers and others may never enjoy eating dark chocolate. A male consumer explained:

You know what I notice is you know how kids—grow up drinkin' grape drink instead of grape juice, or American processed cheese instead of cheese? Then, they think that's what cheese tastes like, or that's what grape tastes like, whatever…I think that beer, and bread, and chocolate are really very similar .

Consumers differentiate between chocolates they buy as gifts and chocolates they buy for themselves.

Consumers strongly differentiated between the types of chocolates they buy as gifts and chocolates they buy for themselves. In general, they gifted higher quality chocolates than they would purchase for themselves. A male consumer said:

When I think quality, that would be something I would buy for somebody, maybe, because it was…something different, something interesting…

This idea was reiterated by Finnish chocolate consumers, even heavy store-brand purchasers, who stated they would never purchase a store-brand chocolate as a gift [ 79 ]. Giftable chocolates, which may align with the NCA’s premium chocolate or participants’ special occasion segment, are considered a unique segment for premium chocolate consumers.

Focus group participants had different classes of chocolates for different purchase occasions and some admitted to “treating themselves” by purchasing special chocolates. A male consumer explained his purchase:

There's a chocolatier in Philadelphia, John and Kira's. Lovely chocolates, but they're really, really expensive. They end up being $5.00 and $6.00 per piece, so they're very pricey, handmade chocolates. Those are the ones I tend to buy, because I don't eat a whole lot. A 50-pound box of chocolates from John and Kira's may last me six months, because I just won't sit and eat. I just, "I'm gonna treat myself tonight, and I'm gonna have a piece of that chocolate," but I don't tend to buy the bars in the stores because I would consume all of it. It's true .

Our findings align with the 2017 Mintel Snacking in Foodservice Report, in which the number one reason that 54% of consumers gave for eating snacks was “to treat myself” [ 136 ]. This is similar to much of the coffee consumer literature, which has found that coffee is consumed as a personal moment of pleasure [ 137 – 139 ].

Chocolate is consumed for desirable post-ingestive effects.

Focus group participants oscillated between purchasing chocolate for joy and using chocolate as a utility for its desirable post-ingestive effects. Participants described using chocolate to energize, particularly when driving. A male consumer stated:

…when I’m traveling, I usually need to have some type of chocolate and some water or something like that, just to kind of power up .

Consumers commonly associate products with energized feelings. Coffee consumers have reported purchasing and consuming coffee because of its mentally and physically stimulating properties [ 140 ]. Italian consumers stated that chocolate gave them energy when they were tired, after exercise, or strenuous mental activities [ 134 ]. Focus group participants use of chocolate for energy lines up with scientific evidence, which shows that chocolate contains psycho-pharmacologically active compounds [ 141 ].

In the women’s focus groups, much discussion revolved around craving chocolate during perimenstruation. Women described eating higher amounts of chocolate or different types of chocolate to ease their discomfort. A female consumer said:

I think maybe there are certain times of the month that I would prefer a Hershey bar than I would prefer the dark chocolate .

Chocolate is the most commonly craved food in North America [ 142 ]. However, its use as an aid during perimenstruation is unique to North American women as a study comparing Spanish and American women found [ 143 ]. Scientific studies have shown that while there is no physiological rationale for consuming chocolate to quell perimenstrual distress, many American women use perimenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms, as a culturally acceptable reason to indulge in chocolate [ 39 – 41 ].

Consumers also linked chocolate to relaxation or a quiet moment. As a female consumer noted:

There are just some mornings where it’s a little more stressful than other mornings and it’s like that chocolate just gives you that , “Ah . Okay I’m ready to go now . ” …Yeah there are times where yes mom needs chocolate in the morning . [Laughter] Just depends .

Similar to our findings, Italian consumers described keeping chocolate for themselves to enjoy alone for a moment of escape [ 134 ].

Focus group participants described several uses for chocolate (energy, PMS discomfort, relaxation) with language that made chocolate sound medicinal. At some points of the conversation, participants described a “desperate need” for chocolate as though there was a deficit that could only be satisfied by chocolate. One female consumer said:

…I have been known, in desperation, to drink Hershey’s syrup out of the container. [Chuckles] This is the only group I’ve ever said that to… [It’s an] emergency bottle that you can—[chuckles]. You don’t have to bother chewing .

Another female consumer explained, referring to her product map:

It is interesting, because I think that, depending on the mood that you’re in or your need for chocolate, can affect how you group. I mean, if you’re in desperate need, then it’s all in one big pile .

Focus group participants frequently explained their chocolate need state as a “desperate need”. This is consistent with other Pennsylvania chocolate consumer focus groups findings, in which one participant depicted herself as a crazy woman who needed a chocolate “fix” whenever she was stressed [ 88 ]. A “desperate need” was also described by Italian consumers who wrote diary entries about chocoholism, a physiological and psychological dependence on chocolate [ 134 ]. Rogers and Smit [ 144 ] determined that addiction to chocolate is more accurately defined as a craving and propose that people are ambivalent about consuming chocolate because there is a cultural norm that chocolate is highly palatable but should be eaten with restraint. When the concept of restraint is pitted against a human desire to consume, craving results [ 144 ].

Zarantello & Luomala [ 134 ] identified four rationales for Italian chocolate consumption: medicine (physiological or sensorial need), mind maneuvering (escapism, nostalgia), regression (materialism), or ritual enhancement (interpersonal gifts) [ 134 ]. This finding aligns with our finding that premium chocolate consumers oscillate between purchasing chocolate for utility and/or joy purposes.

Our findings are consistent with the 33% of consumers in the NCA survey who ranked mood as the number one driver influencing their chocolate purchase and FCIA survey participants for whom pleasure was the biggest motivator to purchase fine chocolate [ 6 , 9 ]. In focus groups with American consumers, Terrio [ 88 ] also found that Americans derived pleasure from eating chocolate for more energy, less stress, happier moods, and to relax. The relationship between mood and chocolate is strong and such that one could be in a good mood and buy chocolate as a treat or be in a bad mood and attempt to reinstate a good mood through chocolate.

Study implications

Methodological implications..

Our work demonstrated the efficacy of using projective mapping and focus groups in tandem to produce rich findings on the exploratory topic of premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and chocolate quality attributes. We used individual product maps as a “show-and-tell” object at the beginning of the focus group and it provided a common ground for all participants to share how they define and separate chocolate products. This activity was an excellent way to spark discussion about chocolate, provided an ice breaker to decrease the inherent awkwardness that comes from talking with strangers, and also enabled us to get straight to the discussion. Risvik [ 29 ] was correct to suggest that a projective mapping activity could be done prior to, and then used in a focus group to enhance the conversation. The follow-up analysis of the individual product maps using Multiple Factor Analysis created one product map and visually displayed how premium chocolate consumers separated their products. This proved to be an effective non-verbal technique to understand how consumers perceive and segment chocolate products based upon quality in an unbiased setting.

On its own, projective mapping does not provide nuanced information about how and why consumers segmented products. Focus group data, when analyzed using grounded theory, provided deeper information about premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate product attributes. However, robust focus group data analysis takes a tremendous amount of time and thus there is a trade-off in the richness of data collected and the time it takes to collect and analyze it.

Using both methods in tandem allowed us to develop a rich picture of how premium chocolate consumers judge quality and perceive craft chocolate. Esmerino et al. [ 145 ] also conducted focus groups and did a projective mapping activity with fermented milks. They concluded that projective mapping data was high-quality and quick to collect and analyze, which was preferable to the focus groups, which took a long time to conduct and analyze [ 145 ]. In contrast, we found that both methods performed in tandem provided the richest data possible, particularly for a novel and understudied food product such as craft chocolate. This method is recommended for future exploratory research.

Commercial implications.

This paper presents the novel finding that consumers segment products differently than the NCA when given only packaging information (without pricing). The NCA may want to re-evaluate their segmentation method and consider the utility of chocolate products, in addition to price, in their product segmentation. Additionally, premium chocolate consumers clustered premium chocolate with craft chocolate, showing that in the absence of price information, they do not differentiate premium chocolate bars and craft chocolate bars. We recommend that craft chocolate makers investigate methods to distinguish themselves from premium chocolate to justify their price and encourage premium chocolate consumers to trade up. One method could be to use premium chocolate consumer descriptors of craft chocolate, such as those used during the craft chocolate sampling, to emphasize flavor and taste attributes when communicating their product. Additionally, we recommend that craft chocolate companies acknowledge the extrinsic packaging details that premium chocolate consumers paid most attention to: chocolate origin, a handcrafted aesthetic, cocoa percentage, the color gold, and thick foil.

Ultimately, consumers desire trust as a credence attribute and joy and/or utility as experience attributes. There is no clear guidance for the use of sustainability certifications because consumer knowledge, perception, and consequently, trust varied greatly. However, all consumers in our focus groups were interested in meaning, which craft chocolate makers can communicate through the use of a story, a cause or a personal affect. Once craft chocolate companies succeed in communicating trust to the consumer, they may directly target other elements of joy, such as nostalgia, and/or utility, such as gifts.

Study limitations.

While effective, this study had a few limitations. One limitation was that we were limited to a sample population from a university town in Central Pennsylvania. A more robust sample of different geographical locations in the United States may have yielded different results. However, we are satisfied with the convergent validity of our findings with the results of the FCIA and NCA research which had a broader, national sample population [ 6 , 9 ].

The projective mapping activity used 47 chocolate product stickers and pieces of paper. Due to the size of the stickers, information about price, ingredients, and weight could not be included and some of the stickers were lost by participants and had to be replaced. Additionally, some of the 47 stickers overlapped in the same categories, indicating that the same findings may be possible with fewer stickers. A maximum of five stickers per chocolate segment, for a total of 15 stickers is recommended for future studies. Another limitation was the use of paper and stickers in place of computer software. While paper and stickers allowed for participants to touch each sticker, put the sticker in the correct location on the map, and use their maps during the focus groups, the measurement of X, Y-coordinates and word descriptors was time consuming. Future studies could use software on tablets to perform the projective mapping activity so that participants could show the tablet during the focus group and then the software could tabulate product distances and group word descriptors instantaneously.

Focus group participants sampled five chocolate bars selected to represent mainstream, premium, and craft chocolate, and each group ate the five chocolate bars in the same order. The results of this study may be specific to these chocolate bars and consumption order, which may have been different had we used different chocolate bars and randomized the order. Future studies could use different chocolate bars and present them in a randomized order, although this would require several more focus groups to insure reproducibility. A final limitation was the slow rate of focus group data analysis using the “scissor and sort” technique. Future studies could use computer software for coding instead.

The main limitations of focus groups are social desirability bias and also the attitude-behavior gap. In our study, we believe we minimized social desirability bias by having consumers create their projective map beforehand. However, it is difficult to overcome the attitude-behavior gap in consumer research in general.

Suggestions for future research.

This study is one of the only consumer perception studies with American chocolate consumers. More studies could be conducted with a broader geographical variety or type (mainstream, premium, craft) of American chocolate consumers. This study suggests that there may be gender differences in consumer use and perception of chocolate products. Future work could delve deeper into isolating these differences and understanding how to market chocolate to each gender more effectively.

To target specific search, credence, or experience attributes of craft chocolate, future studies could be choice experiments or experimental auctions where consumers must make a choice as to what product they prefer in a realistic environment. This would allow for search, credence and experience attributes highlighted in this study, such as cocoa content, price, brand names, and sustainability certifications to be pitted against one another and determine what a consumer would ultimately select in the marketplace and their willingness to pay for it.

This study demonstrated the utility in using both qualitative (focus group) and quantitative (projective mapping) techniques to uncover consumer perception of a novel product such as craft chocolate. Through this work we revealed that premium chocolate consumers segment chocolate products differently than the NCA and form a unique segment for special occasion chocolates. When premium chocolate consumers tasted craft chocolate, they expressed excitement, were intrigued by the flavor, and had difficulty contextualizing it compared to the premium and mainstream chocolates. Premium chocolate consumers paid close attention to search attributes such as a handcrafted aesthetic, the color gold, cocoa percentage, and thick foil in all of the products they mapped and sampled. Grounded theory analysis of focus groups revealed that in addition premium chocolate consumers find trust to be the primary desirable credence attribute, while utility and/or joy are primary desirable experience attributes.

Supporting information

S1 appendix. focus group moderators guide..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240177.s001

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank our participants for their time and effort. We also thank Andrew R. Cotter for plotting coordinates, Patrick J. Dolan and Jacob S. Ginn for their help in projective mapping coding, Marielle J. Todd and Dr. Weslie Khoo for feedback on the conceptual map and image editing, John Russell, Dr. Heather Froehlich, and Dr. Stéfan Sinclair for their advice with word analysis, and Dr. Thierry Worch for consultation with projective mapping data analysis.

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• Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry

Chocolate is a product of the cacao bean, which grows primarily in the tropical climates of Western Africa, Asia, and Latin America. [1] The cacao bean is more commonly referred to as cocoa, so that is the term that will be used throughout this article. Western African countries, mostly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply about 70% of the world’s cocoa . [2] The cocoa they grow and harvest is sold to a majority of chocolate companies, including the largest in the world. [3, 4]

In the past few decades, a handful of organizations and journalists have exposed the widespread use of child labor, and in some cases slavery, on cocoa farms in Western Africa. [5, 6, 7, 4, 8] Child labor has been found on cocoa farms in Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, although since most of Western Africa’s cocoa is grown in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, the majority of child labor cases have been documented in those two countries. [9, 10, 2]

In recent years, evidence has also surfaced of both child labor and slavery on cocoa farms in Brazil. [11] Cocoa workers there face many of the same abuses as those on the cocoa farms of Western Africa.

Aside from cocoa production in Western Africa and Brazil, a significant amount of cocoa is also grown in other parts of Latin America. While it remains possible that some cocoa farms in these places may employ child labor or slavery, at this time, neither practice has been documented as prevalent on cocoa farms outside of Western Africa and Brazil. [9]

Over the years, the chocolate industry has become increasingly secretive, making it difficult for reporters to not only access farms where human rights violations still occur, but to then disseminate this information to the public. In 2004, the Ivorian First Lady’s entourage allegedly kidnapped and killed a journalist reporting on government corruption in its profitable cocoa industry. [12] In 2010, Ivorian government authorities detained three newspaper journalists after they published an article exposing government corruption in the cocoa sector. [13]

The farms of Western Africa and Brazil supply cocoa to international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé as well as many small chocolate companies—revealing the industry’s direct connection to the worst forms of child labor, human trafficking, and slavery. [8, 14]

The Worst Forms of Child Labor in Western Africa

In Western Africa, cocoa is a commodity crop grown primarily for export; cocoa is the Ivory Coast’s primary export and makes up about half of the country’s agricultural exports in volume. [15] Cocoa was originally brought to Western Africa by European chocolate companies seeking to grow it where labor was cheap or free, and that colonial legacy exists in the chocolate industry today. [16] As the chocolate industry has grown over the years, so has the demand for cheap cocoa. Most cocoa farmers earn less than $1 per day, an income below the extreme poverty line. [17, 18] As a result, they often resort to the use of child labor to keep their prices competitive. [19] In many cases, this includes what the International Labour Organization (ILO) calls “the worst forms of child labor.” These are defined as practices “likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children.” [20] Approximately 2.1 million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana work on cocoa farms, most of whom are likely exposed to the worst forms of child labor. [21, 22]

The children of Western Africa are surrounded by intense poverty, and many begin working at a young age to help support their families. [23, 24, 14] Some children end up on the cocoa farms because they need work and traffickers tell them that the job pays well. [8] Other children are sold to traffickers or farm owners by their own relatives, who are unaware of the dangerous work environment and the lack of any provisions for an education. [25, 4] Often, traffickers abduct the young children from small villages in neighboring African countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali, two of the poorest countries in the world. [26, 27] In one village in Burkina Faso, almost every mother in the village has had a child trafficked onto cocoa farms. [6] Traffickers will then sell children to cocoa farmers.

Journalists who went undercover as cocoa farmers documented traffickers in Ghana selling children to them for $34 a child. [14] These children were liberated, and social workers reunited them with their families. [14]

Once they have been taken to the cocoa farms, the children may not see their families for years, if ever. [14] If a child who has been trafficked wants to go home, they will likely not be allowed because the trafficker has sold them to work on the cocoa farms for a certain number of years. [14]

Most of the children laboring on cocoa farms are between the ages of 12 and 16, but reporters have found children as young as 5. [28, 29] In addition, 40% of these children are girls, and some end up working on the cocoa farms through adulthood. [29, 4]

Child laborers on cocoa farms work long hours, with some being forced to work up to 14 hours a day. [30] Some of the children use chainsaws to clear the forests. [29] Other children climb the cocoa trees to cut bean pods using a machete. These large, heavy, dangerous knives are the standard tools for children on the cocoa farms, which violates international labor laws and a UN convention on eliminating the worst forms of child labor. [20, 31, 8] Once they cut the bean pods from the trees, the children pack the pods into sacks that weigh more than 100 pounds when full and carry them through the forest. [8] Aly Diabate, a former enslaved cocoa worker, said, “Some of the bags were taller than me. It took two people to put the bag on my head. And when you didn’t hurry, you were beaten.” [28]

Holding a single large pod in one hand, each child has to strike the pod with a machete and pry it open with the tip of the blade to expose the cocoa beans. [14] Every strike of the machete has the potential to slice a child’s flesh. Many children have scars on their bodies from their work in on the cocoa farms. [29, 32]

In addition to the hazards of using machetes, children are also exposed to agricultural chemicals on cocoa farms in Western Africa. [4] Tropical regions such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast consistently choose to deal with prolific insect populations by spraying the pods with large amounts of industrial chemicals. Young children spray the pods with these toxins without wearing protective clothing. [4] There has been a huge increase in the past decade of the number of children exposed to agricultural chemicals on Ghana and the Ivory Coast’s cocoa farms, from 15% of children to approximately 50% of children. [33] *

The farm owners using child labor usually provide the children with the cheapest food available, such as corn paste or the cassava and bananas that grow in the surrounding forest. [34, 4] In some cases, the children sleep on wooden planks in small windowless buildings with no access to clean water or sanitary bathrooms. [34, 8]

Around 30% of children laboring on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast do not attend school, which violates the ILO’s Child Labour Standards. [29, 35] Depriving these children of an education has many short-term and long-term effects. Without an education, the children of the cocoa farms have little hope of ever breaking the cycle of poverty.

Aboudnamune, a 13-year-old child who has been working on cocoa farms since he was 11, described his experience: “We are hungry, and we just make a small amount of money.” [8]

In 2015 the Ivory Coast passed laws requiring children attend school until age 16 and making it illegal for children under 16 to work, but this has had little impact on children trafficked onto cocoa farms. [36] In an investigation by The Washington Post , a cocoa laborer named Abou Traore first told a reporter that he was 19 years old, but when the farmer overseeing him wasn’t looking, Abou revealed that he was actually 15. [8]

Abou, who is from Burkina Faso, started working on the cocoa farms when he was 10 years old. “I came here to go to school,” Abou said. “I haven’t been to school for five years now.” [8]

Some children labor on their parents’ farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Cocoa farmers who want to send their children to school are often unable to afford to. Mr. Zongo, a farmer who has been working in cocoa for 30 years, could only afford to send one of his children to school. [4]

“We are exhausted and we don’t have enough money,” Mr. Zongo said. [4]

Parents like Mr. Zongo are forced to include their children in the farm labor instead of sending them to school because they are not paid enough for the cocoa they sell. This is not because chocolate is unprofitable; the chocolate industry makes about $103 billion a year in sales. [37] It is through the industry’s exploitation of cocoa farmers that these corporations are able to make such a profit. As a result, chocolate companies have little incentive to change the conditions of cocoa farmers and thereby reduce child labor.

Slavery in Western Africa

Many children trafficked into Western African cocoa farms are coerced to work without pay. [3, 7, 14] Abby Mills, campaigns director of the International Labor Rights Forum, reported, “Every research study ever conducted in shows that there is human trafficking going on, particularly in the Ivory Coast.” [38] A journalist who visited cocoa farms in Ghana during the making of the documentary Invisible Hands said that they found incidents of trafficked children on all of the farms they visited. [14]

Both children and adults are enslaved on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. [39] A study found that in Ghana, 23% of surveyed cocoa laborers reported having performed work without compensation. [40] While the term “slavery” has a variety of historical contexts, slavery in the cocoa industry involves the same core human rights violations as other forms of slavery throughout the world.

In the documentary Chocolate’s Heart of Darkness, journalists interviewed a cocoa laborer named Aziz who worked for five years without payment, starting when he was 15 years old. Another laborer on the same farm named Ali worked for six years without being paid. After years of working for free, Ali and Aziz were given small cocoa parcels as “rewards,” which they could sell for very little. Ali, for example, made only about $250 in one year from selling his share of cocoa. [4]

Cases of slavery in the cocoa industry often involve acts of physical violence, such as being whipped for working slowly or trying to escape. Reporters have also documented cases where children were locked in at night to prevent them from escaping. [34] Former enslaved cocoa worker Aly Diabate told reporters, “The beatings were a part of my life. Anytime they loaded you with bags and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead, they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again.” [28] Drissa, a freed enslaved worker who had never even tasted chocolate, experienced similar circumstances. When asked what he would tell people who eat chocolate made from slave labor, he replied that they enjoyed something that he suffered to make, adding, “When people eat chocolate, they are eating my flesh.” [41]

In the Supreme Court case Nestlé USA and Cargill v. Doe , six people from Mali sought damages from Nestlé and Cargill for being trafficked into the Ivory Coast as children and forced to work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. [42] The formerly enslaved plaintiffs described how guards would punish child workers who attempted to flee with atrocities such as forcing them to drink urine or cutting open their feet. [30] If the guards thought they weren’t working quickly enough, they would beat them with tree branches. [30] The plaintiffs also described how they were kept in locked rooms at night and only given scraps of food to eat. [30]

The workers’ attorney, Paul L. Hoffman, said his clients were “former child slaves seeking compensation from two U.S. corporations which maintain a system of child slavery and forced labor in their Ivory Coast supply chain as a matter of corporate policy to gain a competitive advantage in the U.S. market.” [42]

Business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with Nestlé and Cargill, wanted the case tossed out, and got their wish when the Supreme Court appallingly ruled in favor of the chocolate companies. [42, 43] 

Nestlé and Cargill, along with Mars, Hershey’s, Barry Callebaut, Olam and Mondelēz, were simultaneously sued in another federal case (which is still pending) involving eight formerly enslaved plaintiffs also trafficked from Mali to cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. [32, 44] Among other abuses, the plaintiffs were fed very little and were often kept alone, isolated from one other, while on the cocoa farms. [32] The chocolate companies unsurprisingly tried to get the case tossed here as well. [45]

Child Labor and Slavery in Brazil

Unlike child labor and slavery in the West African cocoa industry, which has been exposed for some time, these abuses remained hidden on Brazilian cocoa farms until only a few years ago. [11]

While cocoa is native to the Amazon, Brazil only produces about 3.7% of the world’s supply. The Brazilian states of Pará and Bahia account for almost all of the country’s cocoa production. The residents of the main municipalities that produce cocoa, Ilhéus in Bahia and Medicilândia in Pará, face high rates of poverty. In Illhéus, for example, more than 22% the population live in homes without a toilet or running water. [11] 

At least 7,900 children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 17 work on Brazil’s cocoa farms. [11] Veronica, a 14-year-old child who was interviewed in the documentary The Cocoa Route , has been working in cocoa since the age of 7. [46] 

Stacking the cacao beans is the part of the harvest process that most often uses child labor in Brazil. Like in Western Africa, the Brazilian child workers also use machetes to harvest the cocoa from tree branches. They then carry baskets of the fruit, which can weigh up to 44 pounds, on their backs. [11]

Parents who work in cacao production often have no choice but to include their children in the harvest. Interviewed parents described that since farmers are paid such a low price for the cocoa, if their children do not collaborate on the plantations, “the bills don’t get paid.” [11]

Many children who work on cocoa farms do not attend school, or if they do attend, they may arrive without their homework completed and fall behind in their learning as a result. [11, 46] In a report by the ILO, the parents interviewed want to prioritize education in their children’s lives, but are faced with no alternative. [11] 

One cocoa farmer described, “If I didn’t have this rope around my neck, my 12-year-old-son, who works in the harvest, would be studying.” [11]

Cases of slavery in Brazilian cocoa production were also discovered in recent years. Enslaved cocoa workers have been subject to unsanitary housing, poor work conditions, debt bondage, and long work hours. In three inspection operations in the same main cocoa producing municipalities, Medicilândia and Ilhéus, 83 workers were rescued. [11]

In June 2017, three workers were rescued from conditions of slavery that they had been experiencing since 2009. Inspectors discovered two huts with “appalling storage and hygiene conditions” and without electricity, running water, or toilets. The people that lived there had to collect untreated water to drink using empty agricultural chemical packaging to carry the water. [11]

The Industry’s Response

For years, the chocolate industry has not sufficiently addressed accusations of child labor in its supply chain, and many companies refuse to release information about where they sourced their cocoa . [47] Recently, many of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers have admitted to the existence of child labor and slavery within their supply chains, but this is only because they have been pressured to by consumers. 

Since companies have been forced to acknowledge these abusive practices, their next tactic has been to distance themselves from their responsibility to end them: they publicly express concern over child labor and slavery in order to distract consumers from the fact that they profit off of the unliveable conditions for cocoa laborers. [4, 48, 14] The world’s largest chocolate manufacturers have formed various initiatives to supposedly address child labor and slavery in cocoa production, but these initiatives have unsurprisingly done little to remove either abuse. [49, 50] 

While the chocolate companies frequently claim large numbers of farmers are impacted by their programs, the language they use is vague. For example, in Cargill’s “Cocoa Promise” program, they say they seek to have “1,000,000 farmers ‘benefiting’ from the services by 2030.” Cargill and other companies intentionally mislead consumers to believe that farmers’ lives are improving, or will improve, even though farmers themselves tend to see little impact on their lives from these programs. [49] 

Moreover, these initiatives often don’t even involve very many farmers. Nestle’s Cocoa Plan, for instance, only works with 5% of cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast. There has been almost no reporting that reveals any large-scale impact from these programs. [49]

We also know from watching the largest chocolate manufacturers postpone a commitment to end the worst forms of child labor in cocoa for more than 15 years that promises it makes about its efforts mean nothing. In 2001, heads of Mars, Hershey, Nestlé USA, and other companies signed a deal called the Harkin-Engel Protocol, pledging to end “the worst forms of child labor” in their cocoa suppliers in four years. In 2005, they missed the deadline to end child labor in their cocoa supply, and proceeded to miss deadlines in 2008 and 2010. [8] The chocolate industry then scaled back its “goal” to reducing child labor only by 70% in 2020, and by that year, the amount of child labor had increased. [8, 51]

The chocolate companies signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol because they were desperate to avoid proposed legislation that would have created a federal certification system to indicate whether or not cocoa was harvested using child slavery. Under the protocol, federal regulators were kept from monitoring the chocolate supply, and the responsibility to end child labor and slavery in the chocolate industry was instead placed with the chocolate companies. [8]  

Susan Smith, a previous spokesperson for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, said, “We don’t need legislation to deal with the problem. We are already acting.” [8] Yet, two decades later, the problem has only worsened.

“We haven’t eradicated child labor because no one has been forced to,” said Antonie Fountain, the managing director of a group seeking to end child labor in the cocoa industry called the Voice Network. “What has been the consequence . . . for not meeting the goals? How many fines did they face? How many prison sentences? None. There has been zero consequence.” [8]

While the chocolate industry has taken little action to address child labor and slavery, companies have put enourmous energy into exaggerating their efforts. Leaked documents from a World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) strategy meeting, where representatives from Nestlé, Hershey’s, Mars, and others were present, showed that the industry prioritized messaging around its “accomplishments” in addressing child labor and slavery over actually ending those abuses. [18, 48]

The leaked documents additionally show how the chocolate industry attempts to downplay the abuse in its supply chain. As the WFC meeting notes reveal, chocolate companies were given early access to the draft of a NORC at the University of Chicago report on the prevalence of child labor on Ghana and the Ivory Coast’s cocoa farms. [18, 48] The companies expressed “comments and concerns” that led NORC to revise and likely water down the report. [18, 48] 

The draft of the NORC report, which was also leaked, included higher numbers of children working in cocoa: the early version stated that 2.1 million children are engaged in child labor on Ghana and the Ivory Coast’s cocoa farms, but NORC lowered the number of child laborers to 1.56 million in the final published version. [52, 33] No amount of reworking the methodology can hide the fact that the numbers of children working on cocoa farms has increased over the past 20 years due to the cocoa industry’s failure. [51] Neither of these estimates even include the number of trafficked children working in cocoa, given that the NORC report did not cover forced child labor. [33]

The WFC strategy meeting document included an agreed-upon statement from the cocoa industry that seeks to obscure the prevalence of child labor and slavery: “The cocoa and chocolate industry has zero tolerance for forced labor by adults or children and these practices are extremely rare.” [48] 

The chocolate industry is also being called upon to develop and financially support programs to rescue and rehabilitate children who have been sold to cocoa farms. [53] To date, the industry has done just as little to aid survivors of child labor as it has done to prevent child labor in the first place. This lip service is characteristic of the chocolate industry, which has the resources to address and eliminate child labor but consistently fails to take action.

Are the Labels on Chocolate Meaningful?

The truth is that as consumers today, we have no sure way of knowing if the chocolate we buy involved the use of slavery or child labor. Between a quarter and a third of all cocoa is grown under a certification label, such as various fair trade certifications and the Rainforest Alliance/UTZ Certification; however, no single label can guarantee that the chocolate was made without the use of exploitive labor. [54, 55] The third-party inspectors for these certifications are usually only required to visit fewer than 10% of cocoa farms. [8] Moreover, audits are usually announced in advance, which enables farmers to hide evidence of rule violations. [56] These inspections have made child labor more hidden while remaining just as prevalent. [22]

Some certifiers even claim that their standards for labor practices do not come with a guarantee that they are being met. One certifier said, “There is no guarantee. We don’t use the word guarantee.” [40]

In 2010, the founders of the “Fair Trade” certification process had to suspend several of their Western African suppliers due to evidence that they were using child labor. [57]   Additionally, in 2011, a Danish journalist investigated farms in Western Africa where major chocolate companies buy cocoa. He filmed illegal child labor on these farms, including those certified by the now merged certification bodies, UTZ and Rainforest Alliance. [3] Another advocate found trafficked children laboring on Fair Trade certified cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast as recently as May 2017. [49]

UTZ has rules against child labor, but it co-sponsored reports in 2013 and 2017 that found that child labor was even more prevalent on UTZ certified farms in the Ivory Coast than other farms. Children on UTZ-certified farms were also more likely to be engaged in hazardous tasks such as working with agricultural chemicals and machetes. [56]

An author of one of the UTZ-sponsored reports said, “Consumers believe that by buying certified cocoa they are doing something good for the environment, or children or farmers. But that is a fiction.” [56]

Charity Ryerson, a co-founder of a corporate accountability nonprofit, said she found little evidence when visiting cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast that anyone was making sure “certified” farms were complying with standards. She described how a requirement for clean bathrooms was checked off on an evaluation checklist even though none of the farms have bathrooms. [49, 56]

Ryerson added, “From our experience talking to farmers, it was clear that certification meant almost nothing. It’s an open secret in the Ivory Coast that no one checks the certified farms for compliance.” [56]

A report by the University of Sheffield found that 95% of the cocoa workers they surveyed in Ghana did not know whether their worksite was certified or not. [40]

Brazil is the “least certified cocoa country,” but the situation with its certifications is very similar to that of cocoa in Western Africa. [58] Patrícia de Mello Sanfelici, a member of the ILO report team, said that companies will show “perfect reports, but in fact they are only documents … they don’t represent the real thing, what really happens when we are not looking.” [58] It is not an accident that certifications fail to improve labor conditions in the cocoa industry. Because certifiers compete with one another, they often lower standards or enforcement in order to attract clients. [49]

The following is an excerpt from a study conducted by the Corporate Accountability Lab on the failure of initiatives in the chocolate industry like certifications:

In order to understand the gap between consumer perception and farmer impact better, we brought certified chocolate bars to villages where some or all farmers were certified. We held up the bar with the label, and explained to the farmers what consumers expected out of the label (primarily that farmers were paid a fair price, earned a decent living, and certain practices—like child labor and deforestation—were not present). We also explained the difference in retail price between Fairtrade and uncertified chocolate.

The overwhelming response of farmers to this information was shock and outrage. One farmer pulled his worn shirt out in front of him and asked if it looked like he earned a decent living. A woman in one village said she could hardly afford to send her children to school, so how could anyone think she earned a fair price. Our farmer consultations revealed virtually imperceptible differences between certified and uncertified farms in terms of living incomes, poverty, education, access to healthcare, farmer bargaining power, or access to information . 

Chocolate companies keep certifying their products to tell consumers that they source their cocoa ethically, but these companies continue to enable abuse on cocoa farms.

The Problems With Cocoa Cooperatives

While cocoa cooperatives may seem like a solution to the issue of chocolate companies withholding decision-making power from cocoa farmers, the cooperatives are rarely fully worker-owned (at least in Western Africa) and are often simply “buying agents” created by chocolate companies. A member of the World Cocoa Farmers Organization said, “What we have in most producing countries especially in West Central Africa is cooperatives put in place by one of the chocolate companies so they can say to people ‘we buy from cooperatives.’” He said that out of 20 cocoa cooperatives in the Ivory Coast, you won’t even find two that are driven by cocoa farmers. [59]

Another issue is that even if not all of the cocoa farms employ the same labor practices, cocoa beans that a certifier gets from separate farms may not be labeled and may all be mixed together upon arrival. Journalists documented bags of beans from about 40 different farmers arriving at Coopaweb, a cocoa cooperative in the Ivory Coast, being opened and combined with one another prior to being shipped out. Coopaweb sells its beans to Cargill, which supplies companies like Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé, and was Fair Trade certified until it had its certification suspended for undisclosed reasons. [4]

A Living Income for Cocoa Farmers

Certifications do little to address the root cause of child labor and slavery in the cocoa industry: the absense of a living income for cocoa farmers. A living income is the income a household needs to earn in order for its members to afford food, water, housing, health care, education, clothing, transportation, emergency funds, and other essential needs. [22] Almost no cocoa farmers in Ghana or the Ivory Coast make a living income. [22] This even includes cocoa farmers who must turn to growing additional crops besides cocoa in order to supplement their incomes. [60] As long as farmers do not earn a living income, they will not have enough to pay the workers on their farms a living income either and child labor and slavery will continue to pervade the industry.

Most certified cocoa farmers also still live in poverty. [61] Certified farms receive payments called premiums, but they are partially paid to a communal fund for farmer training. [62] The remaining money paid directly to farmers is minimal. A UTZ certified farmer, for instance, receives only the equivalent of around $99 to $158 in cash per year from premiums. [62] Fernando Morales-de la Cruz, founder of Cacao for Change, said, “As a business model, Fairtrade was never designed to be fair to farmers or farm workers because the payment made to them has always been unfair.” [63]

In addition to certification bodies, some chocolate companies and the governments of Ghana and the Ivory Coast have put forward policies for minimum prices that should be paid to farmers for their cocoa. Despite having names like “Living Income Reference Price” and “Living Income Differential,” these prices are still too low for cocoa farmers to actually make a living income. [64]

Moreover, chocolate companies have been resistant to paying Ghana and the Ivory Coast’s Living Income Differential (LID), an extra $400 charged per ton of cocoa paid to the countries’ governments. [65, 66] The purpose of the LID is to increase cocoa farmer incomes, although there is concern about how much of the money will directly benefit farmers. [66]  

In 2020 Hershey’s bought approximately 30,000 tons of cocoa on an exchange in order to avoid paying this extra price. [67] Whether or not the LID is successful in its goal, the fact that Hershey’s tried to opt out of an effort to improve farmer incomes reveals how much it values profit over workers’ lives.

Despite their role in contributing to child labor, slavery, and human trafficking, the chocolate industry has not taken significant steps to remedy the problem. Within their $103 billion-per-year industry, chocolate companies have the power to end the use of child labor and slave labor by paying cocoa farmers a living income for their product. [37]

For example, the chocolate company Ferrero could provide a living income for all 90,000 cocoa farmers producing its cocoa and still pay the Ferrero family about $233 million a year. [22]

Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the global economy has led to the deterioration of cocoa producing countries’ economic situations. [18] The combination of lower farmer incomes and school closures is likely what led to an estimated 15–20% increase in child labor on the Ivory Coast and Ghana’s cocoa farms in the first months of the pandemic. [68, 18, 69] Child laborers and victims of slavery are also even more vulnerable to the virus due to their lack of healthcare. [70]

The chocolate industry’s response to the pandemic has been inadequate. Like the money chocolate companies have spent to address child labor and slavery in general, their donations to COVID-19 relief efforts represent only a fraction of the companies’ revenue: for example, Hershey’s donations in the initial months represented only 0.05% of their profits. [18, 70]

Our Responsibility

Multiple government and NGO programs have been developed in an attempt to address the root causes of “the worst forms of child labor” and slavery in the chocolate industry. However, these efforts will not be successful unless the chocolate industry begins to show genuine support for paying cocoa farmers a living income.

Consumers play an essential role in diminishing the food industry’s injustices. Child slavery on cocoa farms is a difficult issue to fully address because the most serious abuses take place across the world; however, that does not mean our responsibility is reduced. Chocolate has become a regular presence in many of our lives, but it is important to remember it is a luxury.

What You Can Do

• Consult our list: Use Food Empowerment Project’s (F.E.P.’s) chocolate list to be sure that when you buy vegan chocolate, you are not supporting companies that source their cocoa from areas where slavery and the worst forms of child labor are prevalent. Other than a few exceptions (which are explained), we encourage people not to purchase chocolate that is sourced from Western Africa or Brazil. Even if this chocolate is vegan, that does not mean it is cruelty-free. The list is available on our website along with free downloadable apps for the iPhone and Android.
• Speak Out: Contact chocolate companies and let them know how you feel about the injustices in the cocoa industry. Demand transparency from companies that have refused to disclose where they source their cocoa from, and call on companies to pay a living income to cocoa farmers. Even if a company is recommended on our chocolate list, contact them to let them know that is why you are buying their product. Our free app makes it easy to contact the companies.

*This fact about children’s exposure to agricultural chemicals is from the published version of the NORC report, “Assessing Progress in Reducing Child Labor in Cocoa Production in Cocoa Growing Areas of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.” Given that the final version of the report was reworked due to the chocolate industry’s influence, this data is not entirely credible. However, in the original draft it was estimated that over 1 million children working on cocoa farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast are exposed to agricultural chemicals.

References:

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[3] Shady Chocolate. Directed by Miki Mistrati and U. Roberto Romano, Bastard Film & TV, 2012. 

[4] Chocolate’s Heart of Darkness. Directed by Paul Moreira, Public Sénat, 2019.

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[8] Whoriskey, Peter and Rachel Siegel. “Cocoa’s Child Laborers: Mars, Nestlé and Hershey Pledged Nearly Two Decades Ago to Stop Using Cocoa Harvested By Children. Yet Much of the Chocolate You Buy Still Starts With Child Labor.” The Washington Post, 5 Jun. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.

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[49] Empty Promises: The Failure of Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives to Improve Farmer Incomes in the Ivorian Cocoa Sector. Corporate Accountability Lab, July 2019, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5810dda3e3df28ce37b58357/t/5d321076f1125e0001ac51ab/1563562117949/Empty_Promises_2019.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

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[51] Myers, Anthony. “New Report Reveals Child Labor on West African Cocoa Farms Has Increased in Past 10 Years.” Confectionary News, 7 May 2020, https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2020/05/07/New-report-reveals-child-labor-on-West-African-cocoa-farms-has-increased-in-past-10-years. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[52] Sadhu, Shanto, et al. Assessing Progress in Reducing Child Labor in Cocoa Production in Cocoa Growing Areas of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. NORC at the University of Chicago, https://foodispower.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CONFIDENTIAL_NORC-2018-19-Cocoa-Report-DRAFT_English-3.pdf. Draft. Accessed 26 Oct. 2021.

[53] “Demands.” 10 Campaign, 2012, http://www.10campaign.com/demands/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021. 

[54] “Certification Is Not the Systematic Solution to Unsustainable Cocoa.” VOICE Network, 2019, https://www.voicenetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/190619-VOICE-Certification-Position-Paper-Final.pdf. Accessed 26 Oct. 2021.

[55] “Fairtrade Combats Child Labor.” Fairtrade America, https://www.fairtradeamerica.org/why-fairtrade/explore-the-issues/child-labor-rights-safety/#:~:text=Fairtrade%20Standards%20prohibit%20child%20labor,is%20free%20of%20child%20labor. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[56] Whoriskey, Peter. “Chocolate Companies Sell ‘Certified Cocoa.’ But Some of Those Farms Use Child Labor, Harm Forests.” The Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/23/chocolate-companies-say-their-cocoa-is-certified-some-farms-use-child-labor-thousands-are-protected-forests/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[57] “‘Shocked But Not Surprised’: Fairtrade Responds to Report of Widespread Child Labour in West African Cocoa Industry.” Fairtrade International, 24 July 2020, https://www.fairtrade.net/news/shocked-but-not-surprised-fairtrade-responds-to-report-of-widespread-child-labour-in-west-african-cocoa-industry. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[58] Examining Brazil’s Cocoa-Chocolate Supply Chain: Film Screening and Discussion, Part 2. Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI) and Harvard University, 24 Apr. 2019, https://chocolatrasonline.com.br/chocolate-cacau-e-direitos-humanos/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2021.

[59] Nieburg, Oliver. “‘Fake Cooperatives’: Farmer Groups Warn of Sharm Fair Trade Co-ops in Cocoa.” Confectionary News , 28 Nov. 2017, https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2017/11/28/Fake-cooperatives-Cocoa-farmer-groups-warn-of-sham-fair-trade-co-ops. Accessed 9 Dec. 2021. 

[60] Kiewisch, Elizabeth. “Looking Within the Household: A Study on Gender, Food Security, and Resilience in Cocoa-Growing Communities.” Gender & Development , vol. 23, no. 3, 13 Nov. 2015, pp. 497–513, https://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/files_mf/1450383402GenderandDevelopmentElizabethKiewischNov2015.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021. 

[61] Fountain, Antonie C. and Friedel Huetz-Adams. Cocoa Barometer 2018 . VOICE Network, 2018, https://www.voicenetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2018-Cocoa-Barometer.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[62] Nieburg, Oliver. “Fair Game: How Effective is Cocoa Certification?” Food Navigator , 20 Dec. 2017, https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2017/12/20/Fair-trade-How-effective-is-cocoa-certification?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20-Dec-2017&c=7fiBYGSIbNocWxvWGeklvYrc0PxTtSqy&p2=. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[63] Michail, Niamh. “Higher Fairtrade Prices Are Still Unfair, Says Cacao for Change Founder.” Food Navigator , 11 Dec. 2018, https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2018/12/11/Higher-Fairtrade-prices-are-still-unfair-says-Cacao-for-Change-founder. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[64] “Necessary Farm Gate Prices for a Living Income: Existing Living Income Reference Prices are Too Low.” VOICE Network , Jan. 2020, https://www.voicenetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/200113-Necessary-Farm-Gate-Prices-for-a-Living-Income-Definitive.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[65] Myers, Anthony. “Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire Threaten Cocoa Sustainability Schemes if Producers Don’t Pay More for Beans.” Confectionary News , 14 Oct. 2019, https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2019/10/14/Ghana-and-Cote-d-Ivoire-threaten-cocoa-sustainability-schemes-if-producers-don-t-pay-more-for-beans. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[66] “VOICE Network Welcomes Historic Move to Raise Cocoa Prices, Questions Remain on Implementation.” VOICE Network , 2019, https://www.voicenetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/190905-VOICE-Position-on-West-African-Cocoa-Floor-Price.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[67] Myers, Anthony. “Hershey Move of Buying Cocoa on Futures Market Threatens LID Agreement with Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.” Confectionary News , https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2020/11/23/Hershey-move-of-buying-cocoa-on-futures-market-threatens-LID-agreement-with-Ghana-and-Cote-d-Ivoire?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=23-Nov-2020. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[68] Knott, Stacey. “Cash Transfer Program Aims to Combat Child Labor in Ghana.” Voice of America, 8 May 2020, https://www.voanews.com/africa/cash-transfer-program-aims-combat-child-labor-ghana. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.

[69] Schmidt, Sonia and Kaila Uyeda. Toward a Sweeter Future: Analysis and Recommendations Concerning Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Unicef, 15 July 2020, https://gdc.unicef.org/resource/towards-sweeter-future-analysis-and-recommendations-concerning-child-labor-cocoa-industry. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021. 

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[71] “Tell Hershey’s: Protect Cocoa Farmers, Not Just Shareholders, from COVID-19.” Fair World Project, https://fairworldproject.salsalabs.org/tell-hersheys-protect-cocoa-farmers-covid19/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=d7420122-dff9-4f9c-8c60-c67455c50986. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021. 

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Dark chocolate: An overview of its biological activity, processing, and fortification approaches

Sharmistha samanta.

a Department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, India

Tanmay Sarkar

b Department of Food Processing Technology, Malda Polytechnic, West Bengal State Council of Technical Education, Government of West Bengal, Malda, 732102, India

Runu Chakraborty

Maksim rebezov.

c Department of Scientific Research, V. M. Gorbatov Federal Research Center for Food Systems, Moscow, 109316, Russian Federation

d Department of Scientific Research, K.G. Razumovsky Moscow State University of Technologies and Management (The First Cossack University), 73 Zemlyanoy Val, Moscow, 109004, Russian Federation

e Department of Scientific Research, Russian State Agrarian University - Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Moscow, 127550, Russian Federation

Mohammad Ali Shariati

Muthu thiruvengadam.

f Department of Crop Science, College of Sanghuh Life Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul, 05029, Republic of Korea

Kannan R.R. Rengasamy

g Laboratory of Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry (LNPMC), Department of Pharmacology, Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, 600077, India

Associated Data

All relevant data are within the paper.

Dark chocolate gets popularity for several decades due to its enormous health benefits. It contains several health-promoting factors (bioactive components - polyphenols, flavonoids, procyanidins, theobromines, etc, and vitamins and minerals) that positively modulate the immune system of human beings. It confers safeguards against cardiovascular diseases, certain types of cancers, and other brain-related disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, etc. Dark chocolate is considered a functional food due to its anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial properties. It also has a well-established role in weight management and the alteration of a lipid profile to a healthy direction. But during the processing of dark chocolate, several nutrients are lost (polyphenol, flavonoids, flavan 3 ol, ascorbic acid, and thiamine). So, fortification would be an effective method of enhancing the overall nutrient content and also making the dark chocolate self-sufficient. Thus, the focus of this review study is to gather all the experimental studies done on dark chocolate fortification. Several ingredients were used for the fortification, such as fruits (mulberry, chokeberries, and elderberries), spices (cinnamon), phytosterols, peanut oil, probiotics (mainly Lactobacillus , bacillus spices), prebiotics (inulin, xanthan gum, and maltodextrin), flavonoids, flavan-3-ols, etc. Those fortifications were done to raise the total antioxidant content as well as essential fatty acid content simultaneously reducing total calorie content. Sometimes, the fortification was done to improve physical properties like viscosity, rheological propertiesand also improve overall consumer acceptance by modifying its bitter taste.

Graphical abstract

• • Dark chocolate gets popularity for several decades due to its enormous health benefits.
• • Dark chocolate is considered a functional food due to its health benefits.
• • During the processing of dark chocolate, several nutrients are lost.
• • Fortification would be an effective method of enhancing the overall nutrient content.
• • This review study is to gather all the experimental studies done on dark chocolate fortification.

1. Introduction

Chocolate is a popular, lip-smacking sweet stuff among all age groups. Its consumption rate continues to grow around the world year after year. According to the consumption statistics, Switzerland was the leading country in chocolate consumption. According to a survey done in 2017, Swiss people have long affairs with the consumption of chocolate. Austria was ranked 2nd after Switzerland in per-capita consumption of chocolate. Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Sweden, Estonia, Norway, and Poland are popular examples of per-capita chocolate consumption in the world ( Hapsari and Yuniasih, 2020 ).

The consumer importance of chocolate is very high due to its delicacy and health benefits. The use of chocolate was 1st started in Meso America. Old Aztecs used chocolate as a valuable drug for the prevention of different ailments. Chocolate is also effective to increase overall longevity, sexual appetite, and fertility. These health benefits are due to the presence of cocoa in chocolate ( Zugravu and Otelea, 2019 ). Cocoa was 1st cultivated 5300 years ago in Central America by the Mayo-Chin chipe people ( Fanton et al., 2021 ). The main antioxidant phytonutrients present in the cocoa bean are polyphenols and flavonoids. 10% dry weight of the cocoa bean is composed of polyphenol. The most abundant flavonoids in cocoa powder are catechins, anthocyanins, and proanthocyanidins ( Zugravu and Otelea, 2019 ). Cocoa beans ( Theobroma cacao) contain 50–57% lipid, predominantly known as cocoa butter ( Hannum and Erdman, 2000 ). Cocoa butter is one of the principal components of dark chocolate. The major constituents of cocoa butter are 33% oleic acid, 25% palmitic acid, and 33% stearic acid ( Tokede et al., 2011 ; Didar, 2021 ). Cocoa is very much popular due to its extensive health benefits. Cocoa consumption is related to the reduction of cardiovascular mortality by about 50% ( Araujo et al., 2016 ). Due to this characteristic, chocolate is considered a functional food; it has a positive relationship with the prevention of degenerative diseases such as diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's disease, etc. ( Araujo et al., 2016 ; Gianfredi et al., 2018 ). When health issues come to our mind, then selection should be proper. Dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate will be a better option for its high polyphenol and flavonoid content than milk chocolate. The total polyphenol and flavonoid content in dark chocolate is five times higher than in milk and white chocolate. The fat (30 g fat per 100 g) and sugar (52 g per 100 g) content is also quite higher in milk and white chocolate ( Fanton et al., 2021 ). Henderson and Hudson (2019) first identified the usefulness of cocoa beverages before 1000 B.C ( Henderson and Hudson, 2019 ) Chocolate-based drinks enhance the overall vitamin D and calcium status in human beings. It also strengthens the immune system by increasing IFN-γ levels. The chocolate drink also increases the BMI. Thus it can prevent the problem of being underweight and can be used successfully in the malnourished community for the prevention of malnutrition ( Taslim et al., 2020 ).

Manufacturing of chocolate is a multistep process consisting of fermentation, drying, roasting, nib grinding and refining, conching, and tempering cocoa beans. During this prolonged procedure, the nutrient loss is quiet notable. Polyphenol content drops almost 10 times from its original form. Some flavonoids are completely diminished in time of formation of Maillard products. For this reason, the antioxidant compounds vary from raw materials to finished products ( Mattia et al., 2017 ). Approximately 50% of epicatechin is lost during drying. A higher rate of drying leads to the production of acetic acid which imparts undesirable flavors and too slow drying generates high mold growth and an absence of optimal colour in the chocolate ( Cheng et al., 2015 ). Degradation of anthocyanin occurs during fermentation due to hydrolysis and further polymerization of condensed tannins ( Mattia et al., 2017 ). During the time of fermentation, the content of epicatechin, polyphenol and procyanidins are drastically decreased. Even, anthocyanidins become non-detectable after fermentation ( Zugravu and Otelea, 2019 ). To compensate for these large losses of phytonutrients, fortification is one of the effective ways. If dark chocolate is fortified with other valuable micro-nutrients; its therapeutic importance will be raised.

Micronutrient deficiency is a very common scenario in India. So, fortification is an effective way to solve this problem because it leads to a higher intake of micronutrients ( Clewes, 2013 ). To the best of our knowledge similar review emphasizing the role of fortified dark chocolate on human health is not available. The current review article covers the experimental studies which focus on different approaches to fortification and also present the positive impact of dark chocolate fortification with different micro-nutrients for raising the overall immunity and nutritional status by preventing micronutrient deficiency diseases in the human community. Dark chocolate itself is a nutritious food item frequently consumed as a desert by people of all age groups. So, dark chocolate could be a good candidate for fortification. After processing the losses of nutrients should be compensated as well as to make it a more affluent source of crucial nutrients, fortification is the crucial procedure. Fortification of dark chocolate was already done with several micronutrients and bioactive compounds. The main aim of the current work is to explore the positive relationship between dark chocolate fortification and the alleviation of different diseases. Finally, to raise the therapeutic importance of newly developed dark chocolate and its effective utilization for the prohibition of different diseases.

2. Methodology

This review study is performed on the collaboration of different aspects of dark chocolate fortification. This study is dealt with the health benefits of dark chocolate, the different bioactive components present in dark chocolate, and also the processing steps and nutrient losses during the processing. There are several recent experimental studies which have discussed the bioactive components present in dark chocolate ( Virgens et al., 2021 ; Faccinetto-Beltrán et al., 2021 ). Researchers have focused on the health benefits of dark chocolate since 2008 ( McShea et al., 2008 ). The processing of dark chocolate and the effect of dark chocolate fortification on nutrient composition is a commonly discussed topic ( Charoenngam and Holick, 2020 ). There are numerous research articles available that have discussed the processing of dark chocolate and the effect of processing on the stability of several phytonutrients ( Wong, 2018 ). This review covers those studies, but the main focus of this review is to identify different approaches to dark chocolate fortification and enrichment of overall health benefits and physical properties of newly developed dark chocolate and ultimately to buildup a positive relationship between newly developed dark chocolate and disease prevention. Fortification of dark chocolate started in 2007 ( Nebesny et al., 2007 ). But during the last 5–7 years the trends of dark chocolate fortification has been increased. There are 20 studies from 2018 to 2022 and 13 studies from 2013 to 2017. Searching relevant keywords indicates that, the health benefits of dark chocolate was a commonly discussed topic, and several recent studies are available on this topic ( Bartkiene et al., 2021 ; Lamport et al., 2020 ; Zugravu and Otelea, 2019 ). So, searching for relevant keywords related to this topic clearly reflect that dark chocolate becomes a compulsive topic of discussion among researcher.

3. Bioactive components present in cocoa

Bioactive components are the secondary metabolites that contribute additional protection to the cocoa tree from UV lights, parasites, and pathogens ( Lechtenberg et al., 2012 ; Salvador et al., 2019 ). Those bioactive components are responsible for the organoleptic properties of cocoa and cocoa-derived products, for example, dark chocolate ( Aprotosoaie et al., 2016 ; Brglez Mojzer et al., 2016 ). Dark chocolate is rich in total phenolic compounds, catechin, caffeine, epicatechin, flavonoids, etc., that provide higher intensity bitterness, acid taste, cocoa flavor, astringency, and sometimes negatively affect the acceptance of chocolate ( Virgens et al., 2021 ). A brief elaboration is given below.

3.1. Polyphenols

Polyphenol is one of the major components in cocoa beans. Polyphenols found in the plant are of different types, e.g. phenolic acids, stilbenes, flavonol and flavan-3-ols, and anthocyanins. Total polyphenol content in cocoa is partially dependent on the cultivators of cocoa beans. The amount of polyphenol varies among different cocoa-containing foods. It gives the plant protection against different herbivores and pathogens ( Manach et al., 2004 ). In the natural form, cocoa is inedible because of the high amount of polyphenol content in the raw cocoa bean. It contributes secondary metabolites and is responsible for extreme bitterness, and astringency ( Marie et al., 2021 ). Fresh cocoa bean contains 5–6% polyphenol ( Urbanska and Kowalska, 2019 ). Cocoa polyphenol has a preventive role against cancer, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, and anti-inflammatory diseases. Lipid peroxidation is inhibited by polyphenols and also reduces LDL cholesterol oxidation. Cocoa modulates the glycemic response, platelet functioning, and inflammation along with systolic and diastolic arterial pressure. Intestinal inflammation is also delayed by cocoa polyphenol by reducing neutrophil infiltration and the expression of the different transcription factors, thus, the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines is getting lowered. Cocoa polyphenol also possesses chemoprotective effects, antimutagenic effects, anticarcinogenic and antiproliferative effects, etc. ( Andújar et al., 2012 ), ( Jalil and Ismail., 2008 ).

3.1.1. Flavonoids

Cocoa contains 12–18% of flavonoids on a dry basis. Cocoa contains a higher amount of flavonoids than apple, onion, and wine. The structure of flavonoids consists of 15 carbon atoms with 2 aromatic rings (Ring A and Ring B), which are connected through a three-carbon bridge (RingC). Flavonoids can be further classified into different subcategories such as flavonols, flavones, anthocyanin, flavanone, flavan 3-ols, anthocyanins, etc. ( Tsao, 2010 ). The bitterness of the chocolate is attributed to high levels of flavonols. This mainly represents the palatability and organoleptic properties of dark chocolate ( Hurst et al., 2008 ). Flavonol contributes better healing capacity and photoprotection to the skin and also promotes better dermal blood flow ( Heinrich et al., 2006 ; Neukam et al., 2007 ). Flavonoids are effective against certain types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Cocoa flavonoids have greater potency in brain functioning. Its neurobiological action gives protection to vulnerable neurons and also stimulates neuronal capabilities. It can regenerate neuronal action through the neuronal intracellular signaling pathways (such as phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase/Akt) signaling cascades, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase, etc.) and finally leads to strong memory and long term potentiation ( Spencer, 2008 ). Flavonoids restrain neuronal degeneration by interacting with signaling proteins which are essential in pro-survival pathways. Thus flavonoids permit protection against Alzheimer's, diseases, and Parkinson's diseases ( Spencer, 2009 ). Cocoa flavonol is also improved brain function. It also improves insulin resistance and blood pressure and positively modulates endothelial functions and glucose sensitivity ( Desideri et al., 2012 ; Ballard and Junior., 2018 ; Barrio et al., 2020 ).

3.1.1.1. Flavonols

Flavonol is one of the important candidates of cocoa flavonoids, which comprises kaempferol and quercetin derivatives. Cocoa beans and their derived products generally contain a glycosylated form of the flavonol. Quercetin and its derivatives are frequently occurring derivatives in cocoa and its derived products ( Almatroodi et al., 2021 ). Quercetin-3-O-galactoside, quercetin-3-O-arabinoside, quercetin-3-Oglucoside and quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside, quercetin-3-O-rutinoside etc are the examples of quercetin derivatives present in cocoa beans ( Sánchez-Rabaneda et al., 2003 ). According to Karakaya et al. the absorption of quercetin glycoside is higher than the quercetin aglycones due to low water solubility ( Karakaya, 2004 ). Cytosolic β-glucosidase is the enzyme which involves in the hydrolysis of quercetin glycosides in the enterocytes. In mammals cytosolic β-glucosidase is synthesized in the small intestine, kidney, and liver. Quercetin glycosides are absorbed after deglycosylation and ultimately converted into quercetin aglycones. Quercetin aglycones are further translocated with the help of intestinal mucosa by passive diffusion ( Day et al., 2003 ; Németh et al., 2003 ).

3.1.1.2. Anthocyanin

In raw cocoa beans, 4% of the total polyphenol is composed of anthocyanin. Chemically it is glycosides of the anthocyanidin aglycones. That is a derivative of flavylium (2-phenyl benzopyrylium) salts ( Akkarachiyasit et al., 2010 ). Cyanidin-3-O-galactoside and cyanidin-3- O-arabinoside is mainly present in Cocoa beans that are derivatives of cyanidin ( Blanco-Montenegro et al., 2007 ). Anthocyanin is poorly absorbed in the intestine among all the flavonoids ( Czank et al., 2013 ). Among all forms of anthocyanin, O-glycosyl is most easily absorbed, and it occurs by distributing it into the systemic circulation ( Xie et al., 2016 ). The absorption of anthocyanin is dependent on epithelial transporters, such as sodium-dependent glucose transporter 1 (SGLT1) ( Ader et al., 2001 ). It has an effective role in cardiovascular diseases. It also reduces oxidative stress by reducing the amount of ROS and by increasing the synthesis of antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase and catalase ( Chiang et al., 2006 ).

3.1.1.3. Procyanidins

It is another type of cocoa polyphenol which have an antioxidant effect by reducing the production of mRNA expression interleukin 2. Thus, it can reduce acute inflammation. It also enhances the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and interleukin 1β. The investigation was done at the level of transcription and protein secretion to detect both the resting and phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells ( Mao et al., 2000 ). The absorption of cocoa procyanidins is poor in the GI tract. The bioavailability of Procyanidins is influenced by both degree of polymerization and the presence of A-type linkages ( Appeldoorn et al., 2009 ; Ou et al., 2012 ). The location and stereochemistry of the interflavan linkage between the monomeric units, as well as their molecular size, is the greater influential factor in the bioavailability of procyanidins. The degree of polymerization can decrease the absorption capacity of procyanidins ( Aprotosoaie et al., 2016 ).

3.1.2. Non flavonoids

3.1.2.1. stilbenes.

Another commonly occurring compound in the cocoa bean is resveratrol. The chemical name of this compound is 3,5,40 -trihydroxystilbene. It can be classified into two forms, the Cis form and the transform. In those two forms, the cis form is the active form ( Hurst et al., 2008 ). Due to the similarity of the structure with synthetic estrogendiethylstilbestrol, sometimes it is also called phytoestrogen. Resveratrol and its all derivatives elicit different types of biological activities such as antiproliferative, cardioprotective activities, chemopreventive and anti-inflammatory, antioxidant activities, etc. Resveratrol enhances NO production and reduces the pressure of the blood vessel wall. It can enhance the amount of HDL cholesterol and also inhibits the aggregation of blood platelets ( Rauf et al., 2018 ).

3.1.2.2. Phenolic acid

Phenolic acid is found in fewer amounts in the cocoa bean. Hydroxybenzoic acids (protocatechuic acid, gallic acid (GA), vanillic acid (VA), syringic acid (SA)) or hydroxycinnamic acids (coumaric acid (CuA), caffeic acid (CA), chlorogenic acid (CHA) and ferulic acid (FA)) are the commonly occurring derivatives of phenolic acid. Among all mentioned derivatives of phenolic acids, gallic acid (GA) is the highest occurring compound in cocoa beans. In the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract, phenolic acid is easily absorbed by passive paracellular diffusion ( Adam et al., 2002 ). In gastric mucosa active absorption of phenolic acid takes place. In the stomach FA, GA, CuA, and CA, CHA is absorbed ( Konishi et al., 2006 ). Among all the derivatives of phenolic acids, the absorption of GA is the highest. Its metabolization rate is very fast and rapidly excreted after ingestion ( Mennen et al., 2006 ). The bioavailability of esterified phenolic acid is 0.3–0.4%. Hydrolisation of esterified phenolic acids is occurred in the enterocytes before reaching the bloodstream. The intestinal enzymes are not capable of breaking the esterified bond. Esterified phenolic acids enter the colon where metabolized by colon microflora ( Azuma et al., 2000 ).

3.1.3. Non-polyphenols

3.1.3.1. methylxanthine.

Methylxanthine is one of the important bioactive compounds present in cocoa beans. Methylxanthine can be classified into theobromine (TB), caffeine (CF), and theophylline (TP). Theobromine and caffeine is the most commonly occurring compound in the cocoa bean whereas, theophylline is found in a lesser amount ( Hurst et al., 2008 ). Methylxanthine is rapidly absorbed in the GI tract and metabolized in the liver and then excreted in the urine ( Burgos et al., 2014 ). Commercially available dark chocolate bars contain 188 mg of TB and 26 mg of caffeine to increase the amount of theobromine in saliva, plasma, and urine, oral administration of 376 mg of cocoa is needed. The amount of TB in blood serum gets higher after 2 h of dark chocolate intake ( Richelle et al., 1999 ). About 90% of CF is distributed and absorbed in its undissociated form throughout the whole body. Its concentration in blood plasma is raised after 30–70 min of ingestion ( Beach et al., 1986 ).

3.1.3.2. Theobromine

Cocoa contains a significant amount of methylxanthine compounds, in which caffeine and theobromine are the predominant ones. Theobromine falls under the category of a group of purine alkaloids that provide numerous physiological benefits ( Ashihara et al., 2011 ). Its bioavailability is quite high than procyanidin ( Neufingerl et al., 2013 ). Theobromine increases the level of HDL cholesterol in the blood. It also elicits its activity on both heart and lung muscles. It can stimulate heart muscle and also relaxes bronchial smooth muscles in the lungs that play a major role in the transmission of intracellular signals ( Blinks et al., 1972 ). Its amazing antioxidant role is used to treat depressive disorders ( Scapagnini et al., 2012 ). It might have a measurable amount of neurocognitive effect. Its satisfactory amount of antioxidant effect is quite helpful for scavenging the free radicals, which are produced in the skin in the presence of UV light. Those ROS can negatively alter the signaling pathways in the skin ( Saraf and Kaur, 2010 ). The health benefits of bioactive components present in dark chocolate are summarised in Fig. 1 .

Bioactive components present in dark chocolate and their health benefits.

4. Health benefits of dark chocolates

4.1. protection against vascular endothelial disorders.

According to previous studies, regular consumption of dark chocolate will lower the occurrence of high blood pressure. Thus, it delays the occurrence of Cardio Vascular Diseases ( Grassi et al., 2005b , 2008 ). Vascular endothelial disorder is the most potent key event of atherosclerosis. The main cause of vascular endothelial dysfunction is reduced bioactivity of nitric oxide (NO), which dictates impaired flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD). Cocoa flavonols can enhance the circulating NO levels that ultimately raise the response of FMD in conduit arteries. This effect results in a great increase in microcirculation. Epicatechin-7-O-glucuronide is an independent predictor of vascular effects when flavonol-rich cocoa is ingested ( Schroeter et al., 2006 ). It also ameliorates the function of the vascular endothelial system by improving platelet function in healthy smokers 2–8 h after ingestion ( Engler et al., 2004 ; Wang-Polagruto et al., 2006 ; Nogueira et al., 2012 ).

4.2. Protection from diabetes

It improves insulin sensitivity by reducing insulin resistance. Dark chocolate keeps blood vessels healthy and makes the blood flow unimpaired ( Grassi, 2005a ). Reduced production of NO by the NOS enzyme is also responsible for defective insulin formation. That can lead to the generation of insulin resistance. Epicatechin present in the cocoa augmented the level of endogenous NO production that stimulates PI3K signaling. PI3K signaling pathways can influence insulin activation and glucose transportation in the metabolic tissues till the step of Akt activation. The hemodynamic effect of insulin is characterized by the recruitment of capillaries leading to the induction of glucose uptake. Cocoa polyphenol has a dual strategy (Akt/PI3K and ERK1/2 pathways) to stimulate insulin production from pancreatic β cells. Procyandine is another beneficial component present in dark chocolate that can reduce post-prandial blood glucose levels. Though the bioavailability of procyanidin is poor, it can still interact with glucose transporters. Translocation of GLUT4 to the muscle can facilitate central glucose clearance and enhance insulin signaling ( Kerimi and Williamson, 2015 ; Grassi et al., 2005b ).

4.3. Protection from oxidative stress

It gets scientific attention for its amazing antioxidant properties and reduction of cancer ( Wan et al., 2001 ). Free radicals are continuously generated through metabolic processes. Those free radical damages healthy cells and dark chocolate consumption lowers the unnecessary cell damage ( Baba et al., 2000 ). Antioxidants remove free radicals and protect the body from the early occurrence of cancer and aging ( Davison et al., 2012 ). Dark chocolate stimulates mitochondrial activity as detected by citrate synthase activity and enhances glutathione levels which give protection from oxidative stress. Epicatechin present in dark chocolate influences mitochondrial production by increasing the level of nitric oxide that activates co-activator 1-alpha (PCG-1α), which is a stimulator of microbial biogenesis. These results improved mitochondrial function, gave protection against oxidative stress, enhanced cellular metabolism, and ultimately improved cellular metabolism. Mitochondrial function improves the level of ATP that also stimulates skeletal function. Epicatechin has another role in mitochondria. It directly inhibits the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) and gives protection against cell death ( Pinilla et al., 2015 ; Decroix et al., 2017 ).; ( Munoz et al., 2013 )

4.4. Amelioration of obesity

Dark chocolate is also used for weight management due to its low-calorie content. Regular intake of dark chocolate can reduce obesity ( Farhat et al., 2014 ). Primary stages of adiposeness in preadipocytes are hampered by cocoa polyphenols. According to in vitro studies, cocoa polyphenol extract can resist diet-induced adipogenesis inside the cell by decreasing mitotic clonal expansion, which is an important step in DNA remodeling for gene expression atthe time of the development of fat cells. Mainly 2 types of transcription factors (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and CCAAT enhancer-binding proteins alpha) are inhibited, which ultimately inhibits the mRNA expression of fatty acid synthase in these cells ( Farhat et al., 2014 ; Kord-Varkaneh et al., 2019 ).

4.5. Maintenance of healthy lipid profile

A moderate amount of dark chocolate consumption will lead maintenance of blood cholesterol levels in a healthier direction. Cocoa resists the absorption and biosynthesis of cholesterol by decreasing the number of cholesterol receptors. The cocoa product reduces the amount of LDL and total cholesterol but has no significant effects on HDL levels. Cocoa polyphenol can reduce lipid peroxidation in the liver and serum, which lower levels of malondialdehyde production. But the liver glutathione level is not altered by cocoa fiber ( Lecumberri et al., 2007 ).

4.6. Stimulate brain function

Cocoa is also believed to energize the human body. So, the cocoa-containing product is generally consumed before engaging in hard work ( Toplar, 2017 ). Another prime importance of dark chocolate is to enhance brain function. DC (Dark Chocolate) is believed to improve the blood flow in both the heart and brain. The different chemical compounds present in dark chocolate stimulate cognitive function and also positively modulate mood swings ( Lippi et al., 2009 ). Dark chocolate positively influences the nerve growth factor and theobromine levels in plasma ( Sumiyoshi et al., 2019 ).

4.7. Anti-inflammatory effect

Several experimental studies found that Dark chocolate also has an anti-inflammatory effect. It enhances the expression of mRNA, especially anti-inflammatory cytokines IL10, by diminishing the pro-inflammatory stress response. Cocoa also has some direct influence on immune cells. Therefore, it can modulate innate and acquired immunity. Secretions of inflammatory substances from macrophages and other leukocytes are regulated by the ingestion of cocoa ( Dugo et al., 2017 ). The health benefits of dark chocolate are summarised in Fig. 2 .

Health benefits of dark chocolate.

The beneficial role of dark chocolate is entirely dependent on the characteristics of cocoa beans. Cocoa beans are rich in cocoa butter, but they also contain proteins and methylxanthines (caffeine and theobromine), minerals (zinc, phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper, and magnesium), as well as significant amounts of antioxidants (catechins, dietary polyphenols, proanthocyanidins, and anthocyanidins). 100 g cocoa contains 836.8 KJ or 200 kcal. The exact nutrient composition of Cocoa beans is summarised in Table 1 .

Nutrient composition of Cocoa bean (100 g).

5. Processing of dark chocolate

Chocolate is processed from cocoa beans after undergoing several steps ( Table 2 ). At the initial stage, uniformly ripe cocoa pods are collected from the farmers. Harvested cocoa pods should be fermented within 3 days. Fermentation involved smashing the cocoa pods by breaking them down with an object on a concrete surface. Then cocoa beans are scooped by hand, and then these are taken for the fermentation step.

Effect of processing on nutrients.

5.1. Fermentation

It is done by the basket method. This step consists of 3 stages. The 1st stage of the fermentation is dominated by yeast. It takes 24–36 h. The oxygen content and pH both are low in this phase. This stage is fully anaerobic. In the 2nd stage, Lactic acid bacteria are the predominant ones. The third stage is dominated by acetic acid bacteria. The alcohol present in cocoa is converted to acid at a high temperature (50 °C). This is an exothermic reaction. The chocolate aroma is formed by the fermentation step ( Adeyeye et al., 2010 ; Afoakwa et al., 2008b ).

5.2. Drying

The fermentation process is followed by drying. After completion of fermentation, beans are weighed and dried in an oven less than 70 °C. Moisture content is reduced to 6–8%. This process is important for the preservation of cocoa beans. Low moisture content reduces mold growth which makes the cocoa beans stable for transportation. After overnight drying, the beans are passed through a 20-mesh sieve screen for milling. At the end of milling, the finished product is stored in a refrigerator for further preparations. Storage should be done in an air-tight black polythene bag because bioactive components are very sensitive to air and light ( Schwan, 1998 ).

5.3. Roasting

This process is mainly done by the chocolate factory. 120–140 °C temperature is applied for the development of the Maillard reaction. Roasting is essential for the reduction of undesirable compounds. This process is needed for the decontamination of cocoa beans and also for the generation of chocolate flavor and aroma. The precursors for the above steps react and generate new components ( Afoakwa et al., 2008b ; Barišić et al., 2019 ).

5.4. Grinding

Proper grinding and mixing are required to achieve the actual particle size of the chocolate. In this step, all the ingredients (cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, etc.) of chocolate are mixed properly to get a uniform mixture. The texture of the chocolate is also dependent on this step.

5.5. Conching and tempering

Final mixing and heating are done in this step. The higher temperature leads to the formation of liquid chocolate. In this step, all the solid particles are coated with fat, and volatile acids are evaporated. After conching, proper viscosity is achieved, excess moisture is removed from the cocoa, and the desired color is developed. After conching, tempering is applied. This process is done to obtain a stable product. Application of high temperature helps in the formation of consistently sized crystals of cocoa butter which ultimately leads to the formation of a stable crystalline network during cooling ( Afoakwa et al., 2008b ; Aprotosoaie et al., 2016 ). Above mentioned steps are common for all types of chocolates. These processing steps are required to retain the cocoa favor unaltered and are followed over the centuries. This process increases the overall palatability of the cocoa beans by changing physical and chemical characteristics. In their native form, cocoa beans are quite unpleasant in taste. So, many steps are involved in breaking down the shelled seed (Cotylendon) to neutralize unpleasant flavor. Fermentation was carried out when piles of harvested cocoa seeds were spontaneously inoculated. In the 1st 24 h of fermentation, the process is dominated by yeast, but in the 2nd half, the no. of Lactic Acid Bacteria is getting higher than yeast. For the preparation of dark chocolate, every ingredient should be present in the proper amount, for example, cocoa butter (45%), cocoa powder (15%), sugar (39.52%), Soy lecithin (0.3%), Sodium Carbonate (0.15%), and vanilla extract (0.03%). The sequential procedure for dark chocolate preparation is summarised in Fig. 3 .

Preparation steps for dark chocolate.

6. Significance of dark chocolate fortification

Dark chocolate is a natural source of antioxidants. Its antioxidant nature is entirely dependent on polyphenol, especially proanthocyanidins, flavan-3-ols (Epicatechin, catechin), and anthocyanins. The quantity of polyphenol present in dark chocolate is 12–15 mg/g. Its flavonoid content is comparatively higher than tea and wine. Biological availability is also greater in dark chocolate because its absorption capacity is much better than in milk chocolate. ( Murga et al., 2011 ).

6.1. Effect of roasting

During the processing of dark chocolate, cocoa beans undergo various stages. So, the nutrient and antioxidant content may vary from the original one to the finished product. One of the important parts of cocoa processing is roasting, which can alter the composition of Nutrients that already exist in the cocoa beans. Roasting is responsible for the characteristic taste, color, aroma, and texture ( Krysiak, 2006 ). Most of the time, 120–150 °C temperature is used for roasting and the total time taken for this process is 5–120 min. This condition exaggerates the loss of total polyphenol content and flavonoids ( Krysiak, 2011 ). The monomeric flavonols are lost during normal roasting temperature ( Vicker., 2017 ; Ioannone et al., 2015 ). The rate of polyphenol degradation is reduced by maintaining 5% humidity during roasting. For a carbohydrate, for example, the amount of fructose and glucose is decreased, but the concentration of non-reducing sugar (stachyose, sucrose, verbascose, and raffinose) remains unaltered. In polysaccharides, approximately 10% arabinose is lost, but the overall level of pectic and hemicellulosic polymers is not changed after finishing roasting. The level of acetylation and esterification of pectic polysaccharides are not hampered by roasting. Polyphenolic compounds, polysaccharides, and Maillard products interact with each other by roasting ( Redgwell et al., 2003 ). Traditional roasting causes higher nutrient loss than oven roasting. Antioxidant capacity is lost due to the destruction of the polyphenolic compounds ( Reddy and Love, 1999 ). The high roasting temperature will increase the rate of polyphenol degradation, but sometimes it has been found that a high roasting temperature will lower the rate of polyphenol degradation due to low roasting time ( Ioannone et al., 2015 ). Catechin is one of the important thermolabile antioxidant compounds, which is partially destroyed by roasting. Flavonoid content is also decreased during fermentation, but this is entirely dependent on the type of roasting procedure chosen by the industry ( McShea et al., 2008 ). The total antioxidant capacity is reduced by 44% and 50% at a roasting temperature of 190 °C for 15 min ( Moreno et al., 2012 ). The amount of FRAP decreases by 51% and 45% at 125 and 145 °C roasting temperatures, respectively. At 125 °C the number of TRAP increases by 7%. At the end of roasting, at 145 °C, temperature TRAP decreases by about 20% ( Vickers, 2017 ).

6.2. Effect of fermentation

On the other hand, the duration of fermentation also plays an important role. On the 3rd day of fermentation, the total protein content does not differ from the raw one, but after 6 days of fermentation, this value is getting higher, while on the 9th and 12th days, the value is less than the raw content. The mineral content also differs from the original cocoa bean to dry matter. After 12 days of fermentation, the amount of inorganic phosphate varies from 201.0 to 102.0 mg/100 g. But the level of calcium increased from 29.2 mg/100 g to 60.4 mg/100 g ( Aremu et al., 1995 ). The total lipid content is starting to decrease from day 3 of fermentation and the loss is getting significant from the 6th to day 9th onwards. Ash content is also lowered from the 6th day to the 9th day. The amount of crude fiber loss is also inversely related to the length of fermentation time. The antioxidant content of under-fermented cocoa beans is much higher and has an astringent flavor ( McShea et al., 2008 ). The combined effect of heat (50 °C) and acid leads to the breakdown of cocoa seeds. During a time of fermentation process, several organic acids are generated. Phosphoric, oxalic, malic, and succinic acids are the organic acids that are responsible for the breakdown of cotyledons. This imparts the characteristic flavor of the chocolate, but the fermentation step is an uncontrolled and nonsterile process. Some variables interfere with the final flavor of chocolate. Mold colonization sometimes negatively affects the characteristics and flavor of chocolate. The composition and concentration of the flavan-3-ols and procyanidins are altered during the time of fermentation. According to several researchers' observations, fermented cocoa beans contain a higher amount of antioxidants with astringent flavor. The type of colonization and length of fermentation also result in the breakdown of flavonol content. Anthocyanin is an essential antioxidant component present in raw beans, but this content is reduced in fermented cocoa beans due to polymerization and hydrolysis of condensed tannin ( Djikeng et al., 2018 ; Moreno et al., 2012 ). 20–40% reduction of total antioxidant capacity was observed during fermentation. Antioxidant capacity was measured by DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP ( Vickers, 2017 ; Mattia et al., 2013 ). Recently one of the simplest and easiest methods of fermentation was found which was utilized in the formulation of kombucha tea by using SCOBY gel (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). It can be used for the fermentation of cocoa beans because polyphenols and antioxidant properties will be enriched after fermentation. The addition of SCOBY gel will increase the polyphenol and antioxidant content of dark chocolate. The addition of SCOBY gel will increase the polyphenol and antioxidant content of dark chocolate ( Permatasari et al., 2021 , 2022a , 2022b ).

6.3. Effect of conching

Conching is the mandatory step for attaining the actual viscosity, flavor, and texture of dark chocolate ( Afoakwa et al., 2007 ). In maximum time, 70°C–90 °C was used for the dark chocolate preparation. When the temperature and condition applied for the conching varies from normal, then the flavor and texture also alter ( Konar, 2013 ; Owusu et al., 2012 ). Grinding is the step when cocoa beans are converted into fine particles. Grinding also affects the nutrient content in chocolate. During the time of grinding, the fat and carbohydrate content of the chocolate is decreased. Conching is another essential part of processing. Conching is mainly of two types Short Time Conching process (STC) and Long Time conching process (LTC). Procyanidin content is significantly differing by the conching process. The composition of procyanidin varies in chocolate produced by LTC and STC. In the STC method higher amount of monomer is produced. In LTC, the polyphenols undergo thermal alteration that leads to a condensation reaction. On the other hand, a hydrolytic reaction occurs during the STC process. After considering two methods of conching, the yield of procyanidin is 70% in its bio-available form ( Mattia et al., 2014 ). The polyphenol content and total antioxidant content of dark chocolate do not significantly change during this stage. The reduction of polyphenol is a maximum of 3% ( Ozguven et al., 2016a ; Albak and Takin, 2016 ; Schumacher et al., 2009 ).

6.4. Effect of drying

Drying is also responsible for the destruction of polyphenolic compounds. According to the researcher, sun drying reduces the total polyphenolic content by about 44–77% ( Jawad et al., 2013 ). Sun drying is an uncontrolled process so it affects not only polyphenol content but also total antioxidant capacity. Flavan-3-ol is reduced by about 80% ( Mattia et al., 2013 ). Apart from these antioxidant components, some types of vitamins are destroyed to some extent during processing due to their sensitivity to light, heat, and high exposure to oxygen. Certain types of fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A and carotenoid, undergo geometric isomerization in time of thermal processing that may cause the degradation of vitamin content ( Wong, 2018 ). Except for vitamin K, other types of fat-soluble vitamins are lost during thermal processing. The stability of the fat-soluble vitamins is dependent on the moisture content and water activity during processing and storage ( Reid, 2020 ). Water-soluble vitamins such as Ascorbic acid, Thiamin, folacin, Niacin, Biotin, and Pantothenic acid are stable in acidic pH but lost in alkaline pH during manufacturing. Pyridoxin and riboflavin are lost photochemically during processing. Riboflavin biotin and niacin is stable in thermal processing. Thiamin, pantothenic, and ascorbic acid degradation occurs more easily due to their high sensitivity to temperature ( Reddy and Love, 1999 ).

Minerals are much more stable component components, but the bioavailability of minerals is affected during milling, fermentation, and thermal processing ( Reddy and Love, 1999 ). So, Fortification is needed to compensate for this large nutrient loss during processing because antioxidant plays a vital role in our body. Antioxidants are very much helpful in scavenging free radicals from our bodies. Those free radicals are the markers of early aging and also some types of cancers. If dark chocolate is fortified with antioxidant-rich nutrients and other vital nutrients, then it could play a vital role in delaying the occurrence of early aging and also preventing some types of cancers. Fortification also has multiple roles in enriching dark chocolate to enhance its nutritional aspects and also immunity-boosting capacity. The concept of fortification started successfully over several decades. Now it has become an emerging concern in every sector of the food industry. Thus, enriching those antioxidant components which are lost during processing fortification is a must. So, Fortification is an important step in chocolate manufacturing to gain its complete health benefits. The significance of dark chocolate fortification is summarised in the following Fig. 4 .

Significance of dark chocolate fortification.

7.  In vivo antioxidant effect of dark chocolate

Chocolate is the most popular confectionary item throughout the world. But among all the chocolate varieties, dark chocolate is the healthiest option. Among all health effects, the anti-oxidant property is one of the most prominent ones. Dark chocolate is rich in polyphenol, a flavonoid. Epicatechin, flavan-3-ol monomers, catechin, and oligomeric procyanidins are the flavonoids commonly present in dark chocolate (Moutou et al., 2004). Flavonoids are very effective against oxidative stress. After all, they can scavenge free radicals from our bodies because they can chelate metal ions ( Nicole, 2005 ). Procyanidins and their monomer, catechin, and epicatechin present in cocoa also have a protective role against DNA destruction and also reduce LDL oxidation as well as overall lipid peroxidation. Cocoa provides a safeguard against arterial plaque formation and maintains arterial flexibility, thus preventing atherosclerosis. Polyphenols and flavonoids are commonly present in dark chocolate and play dual actions in the treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancer ( Kruger et al., 2014 ). Not only cancer, but dark chocolate also delays the generation of AIDS, Alzheimer's diseases, and alopecia and is helpful for the recovery of premenstrual syndrome ( Baron et al., 1999 ).

Equally, it prevents unnecessary cell damage. In certain conditions, flavonoids and polyphenols also take part in some vital biological actions, for example, antithrombotic, anti-inflammatory, vasodilatory, antibacterial, antiviral (against influenza and HIV), antiplaque, and anticarcinogenic functions. Major polyphenols present in dark chocolate are Catechin, quercetin, Procyanidin B2, Protocatechuic acid, epicatechin, etc. Cocoa flavonoids are believed to improve insulin resistance by changing the vascular endothelial function; flavonoids can modify glucose metabolism for the reduction of oxidative stress. Compared to white chocolate, dark chocolate consumption increases beta cell functioning. The effect is markedly shown in that dark chocolate consumption is continued for a longer period ( Hollenberg and Norman, 2006 ). It has also been observed that dark chocolate consumption reduces the fasting blood glucose level and maintains a healthy blood glucose profile. Flavonoid present in dark chocolate is responsible for the lowering of insulin resistance in blood and improves the sensitivity to the insulin receptor by inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzymes ( Engler and Englaer, 2006 ). This ultimately maintains a healthy blood sugar level ( Nogueira et al., 2012 ).

Flavonols in dark chocolate can dominate the growth of bacteria, especially gram-positive. Sometimes, several substances present in the flavonols form hydrogen peroxide ( Vickers, 2017 ), which negatively affects the growth of gram-positive bacteria. It can also be effective against the toxins produced by H. pylori infections by suppressing the activity of urease. Flavonols can damage the bacterial cell wall. They are also proved to be effective in the prevention of some types of gut cancer, but the exact mechanism is still unknown.

Researchers have found that dark chocolate has a beneficial effect on arterial stiffness after doing some intervention studies. An intervention study was done on 35 individuals, where individuals were treated with dark chocolate for one week, and it was proved that dark chocolate improves arterial blood flow performance ( Curtis et al., 2012 ). Flavan 3-ol has a direct effect on the prevention of cardiovascular diseases ( Hooper et al., 2012 ). It prevents the hardening of arteries and also decreases the process of sticking white blood cells to the arteries ( Fisher and Hollenberg, 2005 ; Mink et al., 2007 ). Flavonoid reduces oxidative stress by increasing the release of prostacyclins ( Erdman et al., 2008 ). The main alkaloid present in cocoa is theobromine which shows a similar type of activity to caffeine. 40 g of dark chocolate contains approximately 240 mg of theobromine. The role of theobromine in dark chocolate is still under research. According to some limited findings, it can be said that theobromine cannot produce any satisfactory results in terms of anti-oxidant capacity ( Cooper et al., 2008 ).

Dark chocolate is also popular for encouraging brain function. It influences the blood flow to the heart and brain so improves cognitive function. Several chemical compounds (tyramine, theobromine, phenylalanine, caffeine, etc.) are present in dark chocolate, responsible for the stimulating action on the brain. Phenylalanine is an aromatic compound that plays the main role in the secretion of endorphin, which makes a human being alert. Dark chocolate interacts with several neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which directly or indirectly regulate reward, mood regulation, and appetite. It enhances cognitive performance because it removes free radicals from the body, which causes memory loss and cognitive decline in old age. Several experimental studies have found that regular intake of flavonol-rich cocoa will increase cerebral blood flow. Thus dark chocolate could be used for the treatment of cognitive insufficiency, dementia, and stroke ( Parker et al., 2006 ).

Theobromine also has a role in managing oral problems. It hardens the tooth enamel and prevents dental decay. Theobromine is not as strong as caffeine, but it also suppresses vagus nerves so it can cure cough (Martínez et al., 2015). Dark chocolate is a rich source of micro-nutrients, for example, vitamins B1, B2, B3, B9, K, Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, iron, selenium, copper, potassium, and zinc. Potassium and copper have a cardioprotective role, especially in stroke and cardiovascular ailments. Iron is helpful for the prevention of anemia and magnesium has a role in pancreatic beta-cell functioning. Due to the presence of magnesium, dark chocolate has a preventive role against Type II Diabetes ( Haritha et al., 2014 ). Cocoa product intake can correct magnesium deficiency problems in rats, but enough evidence was not to support this statement in the case of humans ( Planells et al., 1999 ). So, At last, it can be well defined that dark chocolate has multiple therapeutic roles in human health. So, in the future dark chocolate could be an alternative medicine for the prevention of various degenerative diseases.

8. Approaches to fortify dark chocolate

The main motivation of the fortification is not only to make the product self-sufficient and complement the food product but also to make it nutritionally enriched. There are different approaches to fortifying dark chocolate. Several experimental studies have been done on dark chocolate fortification. For example, fruits and nuts, phytosterols, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, etc., were fortified with dark chocolate. This review study includes different types of dark chocolate fortification. The detailed approaches are explained below ( Table 3 ).

Dark chocolate fortification approaches.

8.1. Dark chocolate fortified with fruits and nuts

Several researchers worked on fortification with fruits Ozguven et al. did fortification of dark chocolate with spray-dried black mulberry. Mulberry contains isoquercitrin, rutin, and 3-(- malonylglucoside), which reduces copper-induced LDL oxidation. It also plays an effective role in the prevention of atherosclerosis and Diabetes. Black mulberry is a rich source of flavonoids, especially anthocyanin, but during processing, storage, and distribution or in time of passing through the GI tract, the concentration of anthocyanin is lost to some greater extent. So, the main concern of this study is to store the existing amount of anthocyanin present in the black mulberry. So, the Fortification of mulberry in dark chocolate should be done in encapsulated form. The extract of black mulberry was combined with a fine dispersed anionic liposome, and the process was done by homogenization at 25,000 psi. Cationic chitosan was used to cover the primary liposome by using layer by layer depositing method. Maltodextrin was added before spray drying of mulberry. The fortification was done in the pH range of 4.5, 6, and 7.5 at conching temperatures of 40 °C, 60 °C, and 80 °C. The use of liposomes in time of fortification gave better protection against the loss of anthocyanin content, even though the sharp fluctuation in temperature and pH. Encapsulation also enhances the in-vitro bioaccessibility of anthocyanin ( Ozguven et al., 2016b ).

Godocikova et al. discussed the dark chocolate fortified with Sea buckthorn and mulberry. After fortification, the number of bioactive components was compared with the plain chocolate. Dark chocolate contained more polyphenolic compounds compared with milk chocolate and white chocolate. Milk solid reduced the availability of polyphenolic compounds. After fortification of dark chocolate with mulberry and sea buckthorn had a higher amount of polyphenol content than the control sample. The greater amount of polyphenol was mainly due to the presence of mulberry, even when a low amount of buckthorn was present. This study also included some other research works done on fruits and vegetables fortified with dark chocolate. Fruits are a rich source of polyphenols. Dark chocolate was fortified with different fruits like dried mulberry, prunes, papaya, cranberry apricot, and raisins. Especially fortification with prunes and cranberries has shown better polyphenol content than the control group. The total flavonoid content was almost double that of the original chocolate. The highest flavonoid content was observed again in mulberry fortified dark chocolate. Phenolic acid content was inversely related to the fortification with buckthorn. Total phenolic acid content was less than the normal chocolate. In terms of total antioxidant capacity measured by the DPPH free radical scavenging method best result was observed in the mulberry fortified product (4.39 mg TEACa −1 ). Even the reducing power analysis also showed the best result in mulberry fortified dark chocolate (16.79 mg TEACa −1 ) ( Godočiková et al., 2017 ).

Here sik et al. had done another different type of fortification. In this experimental study, dark chocolate was fortified with lemon balm extract and rosmarinic acid level was checked. Lemon balm extract was added in the form of freeze-dried. This freeze-dried lemon balm extract was incorporated to enhance rosmarinic acid content. Rosmarinic acid incorporation was done to increase its antioxidant content. It also plays several vital functions in our body, such as acting as an immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, hepatic, and renal protectant agent, and anti-allergic. Even when the sensory evaluation was done there was no significant alteration observed after fortification. So, it could be said that lemon balm extract could be used as a fortifying agent for dark chocolate ( Sik et al., 2021 ).

Some researchers have fortified dark chocolate with lyophilized pequi mesocarp (pulp). After fortification, scanning electron microscopy, granulometry, carotenoids and centesimal composition were analyzed. 1.5% lyophilized pequi mesocarp was used for the fortification. Total antioxidant capacity, physiochemical parameters, particle size and rheological properties, and other nutritional properties were significantly altered after fortification. After fortification, the content of oleic, linoleic and palmitic acids content were increased. Lyophilization was chosen for the preservation of existing nutritional qualities. The phenolic content of the fortified chocolate was increased from 235.98 μg GAE mL −1 to 813.49 μg GAE mL −1 . In this study, lyophilization was chosen for the preservation of existing nutritional qualities ( Lorenzo et al., 2022 ).

According to Polinski et al. dark chocolate was enriched with chokeberries (ChFrE), m elderberries (EFrE) and elderflowers (EFlE). In this experimental study, the dark chocolate which was used for the fortification was already containing zinc lactate. The formulated chocolate was taken for the analysis of total antioxidant capacity By ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) methods. Folin–Ciocalteu (F–C) assay was used to check total phenolic content (TPC). The highest TPC and antioxidant capacity were observed in dark chocolate enriched with chokeberries (DCh + ChFrE). Viscosity, total fat content and some physiochemical properties (moisture content) were also checked ( Poliński et al., 2021 ).

The researcher was focused on the fortification of dark chocolate with palm sap (CPS) and date sugar (CDS). Physiochemical and mechanical properties were checked after fortification. The fortified chocolate contains 4.18% (CPS) and 3.96% (CDS) moisture which was 4 times higher than the control (1.24%). CDS produced a higher amount of agglomerated moisture. CPS had the smallest aptitude to hold the load with measured penetration of 180 g/s measured by harness measurement study hence CPS had a much softer texture than other variants. Colour was not affected after fortification. There was a slight increase in the roughness of the chocolate after fortification in both types. After concerning all parameters overall acceptability was increased by the consumer ( Ibrahim et al., 2020 ).

8.2. Dark chocolate fortified with spices and herbs

Indian spices and herbs also could be a good candidate for the fortification of dark chocolate. This review study also includes some types of experimental studies. Here the dark chocolate was fortified with cinnamon essential oil. According to Dwijatmokoa et al. Cinnamon is a very popular type of spice for culinary use. But it also has numerous immunity-enhancing properties due to the presence of cinnamaldehyde. This component is responsible for the antioxidant property by inhibiting oxidative reaction and is also believed to enhance the acceptability of the product due to its excellent flavor-enhancing capacity. It also has anti-inflammatory, and anti-diabetic characteristics. It also reduces serum LDL and triglyceride levels, thus reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Certain literature studies showed that cinnamon also has antimutagenic, anticancerous, hypoglycemic, and hypolipidemic properties. Due to the addition of cinnamon oil to the dark chocolate, the sensory property improved more than the control due to its significant aromatic properties. Fortification was done in the concentration of 0.25%, 0.50% and 0.75%. The fortification did not significantly affect the color of the product. In 0.25% addition got the best result in terms of taste because 0.50% and 0.75% were getting much spicy. So from the results of the panelists, it could already be proved that the acceptability of the chocolate was higher when fortified with mild cinnamaldehyde with a concentration of 0.25% due to mild aromatic flavor. The main aromatic compound present in cinnamon is transcinnamaldehyde (55.45%) which is responsible for the beneficial properties of chocolate. Cinnamaldehyde was effective in increasing the efficiency of pancreatic β cells when consumed at the concentration of 20 mg/kg body weight. The total antioxidant capacity of cinnamon oil was 0.60 ± 0.05 mg TAE/g ( Dwijatmokoa, 2016 ).

Another experimental study was done by Albak et al. on the fortification of refined dark chocolate with cinnamon powder. This powder was added to the dark chocolate at the time of the conching process. The fortification was done in a laboratory-style conching machine. Aromatic properties were tested both sensorial and analytically. The sensory characteristics were checked by trained panelists, and the olfactometry and solid-phase microextraction (SPME)-gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectroscopy (MS) worked in a combined way to measure the analytical profile of the newly developed product. The innovative product got greater acceptance in the overall inclination test. Conched sample's fruity odor value was lower than the unconched sample. Cinnamon chocolate produced a more specific aroma than normal dark chocolate. This aroma was produced due to the interaction of cocoa mass and cinnamon. The amount of pyrazine was reduced and the amount of aldehyde was increased during conching. But certain textural properties such as hardness and coarseness of the sample were not rich at the satisfactory level. They scored below the reference result. The proximate analysis showed the proportion of macronutrients. The nutritional composition of fortified dark chocolate was Carbohydrate-57.80%, Protein-8.73%, Fat-30.70%, Ash-2.15%, Moisture-0.54%. After conching 26 aromatic compounds were identified, for example, Butanal, 3-methyl, 1-propen-2-ol-acetate, Pyrazine, 2,5, dimethyl, etc. ( Albak and Takin, 2015 ).

Dark chocolate was also fortified with cinnamon bark to make the chocolate functionally and nutritionally rich. According to Praseptiangga et al. the chocolate fortification was done by the encapsulation method to cover undesirable characteristics of oleoresins. At the time of encapsulation, the cinnamon bark was added in the concentration of 4%, 6%, and 8%. The encapsulation is also used to improve the functional properties of the chocolate and also to improve the bioavailability of the fortified product. After fortification, physical, chemical, and sensory properties were assessed. The fortification at the rate of 8% was the best-accepted product by the panelists. Oleoresin microcapsule addition was markedly affecting the texture, phenolic content, and lightness of the final product. The finished product contains amide, methylxanthines, esters, aldehyde, hydrocarbon, tocopherol, and phytosterol. A higher amount of oleoresin reflected a higher amount of antioxidant capacity. After considering all the parameters, the addition of cinnamon bark in the concentration of 8% was the best product with a higher amount of tocopherol antioxidant content ( Praseptiangga et al., 2019 ).

According to Martini et al. dark chocolate was fortified with sakura green tea leaves and turmeric. After fortification, the polyphenol profile was checked and compared with the original one. Dark chocolate could be used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, but the phenolic profiles are not identified properly in previous studies. So, this study was mainly focused on the identification of phenolic compounds present in normal dark chocolate and fortified chocolate. Normal dark chocolate contains catechin and procyanidin that represent more than the 90% phenolic profile of cocoa products. In flavan 3-ols the major monomeric structures are catechin and epicatechin. It has been found that epicatechin has a cardioprotective role in older patients. In the healthy adult male, the elevation of nitric oxide, level occurs after taking flavanol-rich cocoa, which results in enhanced flow-mediated dialated response in arteries. Hydroxycinnamic is another compound that comprises a 20.6 percent phenolic profile of dark chocolate. Another major component is ferulic acid. Whereas sakura green tea leaves fortified dark chocolate (GTDC) contain a higher amount of phenolic compound than normal chocolate. Due to high phenolic content, the antioxidant capability also rises more than normal. The Ferric reducing capacity and ABTS radical scavenging capacity rise to 144% and 40%, respectively. Epigallocatechin, epicatechin (49%), procyanidins, and hydroxycinnamic acid were increased than the normal dark chocolate. On the other hand, turmeric fortification also increased the total polyphenolic content. In addition, that turmeric contains curcuminoids which provide additional health properties such as antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, anticoagulant and antimicrobial, etc. So, it provides better tolerance against several chronic degenerative diseases such as neurological diseases, diabetes, cancer, and obesity ( Martini et al., 2018 ).

8.3. Dark chocolates fortified with prebiotics and probiotics

Another type of fortification was done in dark chocolate, for example, prebiotic fortified dark chocolate. According to Norhayati et al. Inulin is one of the most popular types of prebiotic with multiple health benefits. Prebiotics are one of the essential components of maintaining gut health. They are helpful in maintaining a healthy count of probiotic bacteria in the gut; they protect the human body from an intestinal infection, stimulate mineral absorption, prevent constipation and reduce the incidence of colon cancer. Prebiotics are also responsible for the production of vitamin B. The inulin is added in such a way that the healthy components should be restored. Prebiotic chocolate had a better shelf life of up to 12 months when stored at 18 °C. No fungal growth was observed after processing, and it was also fairly accepted by the sensory panelist due to its good taste. So, after this product development, it could be a better option in terms of sugar-free confectionery items ( Norhayati et al., 2013 ).

Another example of innovative fortification was probiotic fortified dark chocolate. This novel type of chocolate was made with Bacillus coagulans . According to Kobus et al. Probiotics are generally used as a medication for the treatment of intestinal problems. It can inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria. The concentration of polyphenol and its bioavailability were evaluated in this in-vitro study. Bacillus was used for fortification because bacillus can form endospores, so its activity in harsh conditions was not destroyed easily. After enrichment of the chocolate, the polyphenol content, pH and acidity were not affected. The sensory property did not differ sharply from the original dark chocolate. But from this, it was observed that the higher survival rate of Bacillus coagulans was observed when it undergoes the GI tract. Thus Dark chocolate provides a suitable matrix to deliver Bacillus coagulans to the human body, especially to children so, this novel product could also be an example of functional food ( Kobus-Cisowska et al., 2019 ).

According to Kemsawasd et al. three types of chocolate (milk, white and dark) were fortified with different strains of probiotic bacteria, for example, Lactobacillus casei 01 and Lactobacillus acidophilus LA5. After fortification stability of those bacteria was checked up to 60days of storage. For both cultures, the viable count of those bacteria was more than 6 logs CFU/g when stored at 4 °C for 60 days. Chocolate provided a suitable transporter to transport probiotic bacteria without affecting its bioavailability in the gastrointestinal pH. The probiotic fortification was not affecting the overall sensory attributes of the chocolate. After 60 days of storage, the overall liking was decreased by the consumers. But within proper storage time, it could be used as the best carrier for delivering the probiotic bacteria to ensure the consumer's overall health status ( Kemsawasd et al., 2016 ).

Another effective study was done on the same fortification by Nebesny et al. Here, and the dark chocolate was supplemented with lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus paracasei . In this experimental study, those bacterial strains were lyophilized in milk. The total number used for the supplementation was 7.9 × 109 cfu/g. Sucrose, Aspartame, and isomaltose were used as bulking agents and sweeteners. The sensory properties of chocolate did not differ from the conventional ones. If sucrose was not used, then the calorie value was decreased by about 11.1–14.6%. Sucrose-free dark chocolate was developed for diabetic patients by using aspartame and isomaltose. This newly developed chocolate was easily stored for 12 months affecting its viable count. Up to 12 months of storage, those probiotics maintain a higher bacterial count, nearly 106–107 cfu/g. The temperature should be maintained at 4–18 °C. The number of volatile acids and textural properties was not altered before and after the addition of probiotic supplements. The sucrose-free chocolate supplemented with lyophilized bacteria contained 3–55% less fat content. So, it's a good choice not only for diabetic patients but also could be used for the treatment of obesity ( Nebesny et al., 2007 ).

Dark chocolate was also fortified with Lactobacillus plantarum bacteria in encapsulated form. This study was done by Mirkovic et al. After fortification, volatile properties and sensory profile were evaluated. Two types of strains ( Lactobacillus plantarum 299v, Lactobacillus plantarum 564 ) were used for the incorporation. Their survival rate was checked after 60days and 180days of preservation. 108 cfu/g was seen after 60days of preservation and 106 cfu/g after 180 days of preservation. No major differences were observed between the control and experimental chocolate in terms of the composition of volatile components. Even there was no effect was observed due to the addition of probiotics to the chocolate. The appearance, aroma, and color were not disturbed even after 60 and 180 days of storage. These strains could be used as a fortifying agent to fortify dark chocolate without affect ting any characteristics of dark chocolate ( Mirković et al., 2018 ).

Some experimental studies have focused on the production of sugar-free dark chocolate. But Fernández et al. have focused on sugar-free chocolate that was fortified with probiotics. This fortified chocolate could be easily used by diabetic individuals. Here L. acidophilus La 3 (DSMZ 17742) and L. plantarum 299v (L299v) strains were used as probiotic bacteria, whereas; stevia (Stev), polydextrose (Pol), inulin (Inu) and isomalt (Iso) were used as natural low-calorie sweeteners. Low-calorie sweeteners were used in combination with Pol + Inu and Iso + Stev. Sensory acceptability and physiochemical properties were not affected by probiotic addition. The best result was obtained when dark chocolate was fortified with the combination of Iso + Stev + Probiotics. This formulation is successively used by diabetic individuals

According to Waghmodeet al., dark chocolate was fortified with both prebiotics and probiotics. This combined fortification produced symbiotic dark chocolate. The source of the prebiotic was flax seed and the probiotic strain was Leuconostoc messenteroid . Flax seed was chosen because it promotes the growth of probiotic bacteria. Biochemical, morphological, and MALDI-TOF tests were done to check several characteristics of the probiotic culture. Leuconostoc messenteroid was chosen due to its high tolerance in NaCl, temperature, pH, bile salt, etc. It also has the capability of the production of hydrogen peroxide. Thus it can produce cytotoxic activity against neuroblastoma cells (30%) and MDA, MB 231 (48%). Ultimately the symbiotic chocolate produced more antioxidant activity, for eg. 200 μg torolox/mL when measured by FRAP assay and 90 μ/mL by DPPH method. Ultimately symbiotic chocolate provides excellent nutritional support for maintaining a healthy gut in human beings ( Waghmode et al., 2020 ).

Here also, some researchers are kin interested in the production of symbiotic chocolate. According to Erdem et al., Bacillus indicus HU36 and dietary fibers (maltodextrin and lemon fiber) were used as fortifying agents of dark chocolate. Bacillus indicus HU36 was used as a probiotic agent after fortification. The viability test was done to check the number of live microorganisms after fortification. For the formulation of this innovative type of dark chocolate, Three-level (1.5, 3.5, 5.5 (g/100 g)), two factorial (maltodextrin, lemon fiber) Central Composite Design (CCD) were adopted. The survival rate of Bacillus indicus HU36 after fortification was between 88 and 91%. Sweetness, firmness and adherence were improved after the addition of dietary fibre. No negative effects in color and sensory properties were observed after fortification ( Erdem et al., 2014 ).

8.4. Fortification with leaf

Cvitanovic et al. compared three types of chocolate fortified with concentrated freeze-dried red raspberry leaf extract. In this experimental study, physical, sensory and bioactive properties were measured after fortification. The textural and rheological properties showed that among all variants, semisweet plain chocolate was the hardest variant, then plain chocolate came after that. In the case of milk chocolate, a 3% addition of freeze-dried leaf extract reduced the hardness of the chocolate. 1% addition to semi-sweet chocolate significantly reduced the hardness of the chocolate. On the other side, dark chocolate containing the freeze-dried extract had the lowest hardness. Microstructural examinations showed similar types of structure on the surface image of three types of chocolates. Total polyphenol content was lower in milk chocolate because milk protein interferes with the availability of catechine. In the case of dark chocolate highest amount of Total Polyphenol Content (TPC), procyanidin, flavan-3-ol, and total antioxidant capacity (measured by ABTS and FRAP Assay) were shown. In the case of 1%, the addition of leaf extract gave higher results in terms of TPC content. 1% addition of leaf extract got the sensory acceptance as well as visual and textural characteristics in semisweet and dark chocolate. The antioxidant capacity measured in the FRAP assay showed that 3% concentrated leaf extract fortified dark chocolate had the highest antioxidant capacity 1% fortified dark chocolate came after that. But the semisweet chocolate and milk chocolate showed slightly increased antioxidant capacity than plain chocolate after fortification ( Cvitanovic and Bauman, 2012 ).

8.5. Fortification with polysaccharides

Several researchers focused on the replacement of sugar with some of the popular polysaccharides like polydextrose and inulin. Polydextrose and inulin were replaced with sucrose to make them healthier. The beneficial roles of prebiotics have already been discussed in this review study. After replacement, bulk mixture concentration and the effect of fat content were measured. The effect of inulin and polydextrose on the mechanical and rheological properties of the finished products was checked. Steviol glycosides are used to sweeten this product. Polydextrose and inulin were added with dark chocolate having different fat concentrations (27%, 30%, and 33%). High inulin with low polydextrose concentration gave the best result due to a sharp rise in Casson plastic viscosity and simultaneous reduction in Casson yield stress. This explanation was given by microstructural examination of the sugar replacers that presented large variations in network structure. This finished product would be helpful for the reduction of the total energy load in sugar-free dark chocolate. This application could be done in any type of sugar-free confectionery item ( Aidoo et al., 2017 ).

Some types of differential studies were also included in this review study. According to Syafiq et al. cocoa butter was replaced with xanthan gum or corn starch and glycerine blends. Cocoa butter is one of the important components of dark chocolate. In this experiment, the fat component was replaced with a non-fat substituent. After replacement, the flow parameter was checked with the help of a D-optimal mixture design. The chocolate fortification was done in the concentration of 5%, 10%, and 15%. Xanthan gum had a high water holding capacity and glycerine contributed to high yield stress. So, both components enhanced the stickiness and viscosity of the product. The dual effect of xanthan gum and glycerine gave higher viscosity and positively modified the rheological property of the product. Cocoa butter individually provided only the continuous phase for the transport of solid particles in chocolate, but this combination enhanced the viscosity and shape of the product, which raised the flow behavior of the new variant of chocolate. So, 5%–15% replacement positive modified the rheological characteristics of the chocolate ( Syafiq et al., 2014 ).

Sometimes fortification or replacement was done to improve the physical properties of the dark chocolate. Here, the researchers Lillah et al. replaced cocoa butter with a cocoa butter substitute (CBS: polyglycerol polyricinoleate: water: gum Arabic: invert syrup). This replacement increased the stability of the product in hot weather. The prepared chocolate bar was taken for the evaluation of pH, shape retention index (SRI), color, hardness, water activity, moisture retention, and sensory evaluation. The new variant of chocolate had high moisture and fat content. Up to 60 mL/L CBS, emulsion addition decreased surface whiteness and viscosity of the product, but the sensory attributes improved. Maximum hardness was observed when CBS emulsion was added to the concentration of 80 mL/L. But the appearance of fat bloom decreased the acceptability of the product and sensory property was also below the average value. So, after analyzing 2 variants, it could be concluded that the addition of CBS emulsion in 60 mL/L concentration produced the best result ( Lillah et al., 2017 ).

According to Marazeeq., dark chocolate was fortified with wheat germ to examine the alteration of physical, nutritional, and chemical characteristics after fortification. The fortification improved the total protein and mineral content of dark chocolate. The total fat content was decreased than the control. The calorie content was reduced by about 20.5 kcal/100 g. The amount of carbohydrates and moisture content was similar to the original one. The best result was observed when the fortification was done with 10% wheat germ. But mouth feel, taste, texture, and overall acceptability were better than normal dark chocolate. Colour and sensory properties were not affected by fortification. Two months of controlled storage did not affect the sensory properties of the chocolate. So, it can be claimed fortification provided a healthier option for all age groups people ( Marazeeq, 2018 ).

Replacing sugar in dark chocolate with another healthy option is a common approach tothe production of sugar-free dark chocolate. Here the researchers used D-tagatose and inulin for the production of chocolate that can be easily consumed by diabetics and patients having tooth decay. The glycemic index and overall calorie content were reduced after fortification. The D tagatose and inulin were added in the proportion of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, and 0:100. Moisture contents of the chocolate samples decreased with the reduction of the inulin content and increase of D-tagatose content. D tagatose contributed more hardness to the chocolate. Whereas inulin conferred the least L*,a*,b*,c* and huge value when it was added in 100% concentration. The appearance and plastic viscosity were decreased and linear stress and yield stress were increased when there was a reduction in inulin concentration. The Addition of D-tagatose increased the overall consumer acceptability. The best acceptable dark chocolate was produced when inulin and D-tagatose were replaced by sucrose in the ratios of 25%–75% and 100% ( Shourideh et al., 2012 ).

8.6. Fortification with algae

Petyaev et al. dealt with another type of fortification; for example, dark chocolate was fortified with astaxanthin which is an algal antioxidant. For the prevention of oxidative stress, this innovative product was developed. Here are biologically available polyphenols of lycosome-formulated dark chocolate (DC) which contains a co-crystallized form of astaxanthin (LF-DC-ASTX) to evaluate the oxidative stress parameters on the human body. The study was done in four groups. Each and every group was treated differently. For example, 1st group was taken as control and was treated with 7.5 g DC, and the 2nd group was treated with 4 mg and 7 mg astaxanthin capsule, 3rd group was suggested to take DC bars (7.5 g) and 4 mg ASTX capsules for co-ingestion in the form of two separate formulations. 4th group was treated with LF-DC-ASTX, which contains astaxanthin with different concentrations of 1 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg, or 7 mg co-crystallized with 7.5 g of Dark Chocolate matrix. The treatment was followed for 1 month. After taking, 2–4 weeks, serum malondialdehyde (MDA) level and serum oxidized LDL level was evaluated. No significant changes were observed in the control group. Those people who took ASTX capsules showed a reduction of oxidative marker to some extent, but the best oxidative LDL inhibition result was obtained from the group who was taken astaxanthin combined with the dark chocolate matrix. So it was proved that dark chocolate and ASTX were best effective in combined form and it would be a future alternative for the management of oxidative stress-related disorders (Cancer, CVD, and Diabetes) ( Petyaev et al., 2018 ).

Asti et al. focused on consumer preferences, which were checked after the fortification of dark chocolate with Spirulina platensis . Dark chocolate was fortified with beta carotene extracted from Spirulina platensis (0.372% dose) to make it energy-dense and vitamin A rich. This study followed the analytical hierarchical method to carry out the survey. In Yogyakarta, 100 respondents were chosen for participation. According to the consumer's response, the taste of fortified chocolate was quite bitter, acidic, and astringent. Caffeine and theobromine were the responsible factors for bitter taste. Apart from these two components, polyphenol and flavonoids were attributed to the bitter taste. During roasting and conching, the acid content of cocoa beans was not evaporated, so those acids contributed to the mild acidic taste of dark chocolate. The astringent taste was given by anthocyanin. Its mouthfeel was good. The texture of the chocolate was smooth, hard, and grainy. The fortified chocolate's price and its health benefit made the product more acceptable to the consumer ( Asti and Ekantari, 2020 ).

Researchers have found one study focused on the consumer presence of dark chocolate fortified with Spirulina Platensis, but Ekantari et al. compared the stability of the chocolate when Spirulina Platensis was fortified with dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Especially carotenoid used for fortification was isolated from the Spirulina Platensis . The fortification was done by forming nano-encapsulate. After enrichment, it was observed that texture, taste, and aroma were not varied with the control. The flat bloom development also lowered fortified chocolate rather than control during storage. But the stability test proved that the shelf life of fortified dark chocolate was 1.5 times higher than milk chocolate ( Ekantari et al., 2019 ).

Several researchers also had done fortification of dark chocolate with Arthrospira carotenoid . Ramadhanti et al. used the project mapping method to check consumer acceptance. The researcher wanted to check the Arthrospira carotenoid incorporation can influence the buying behavior of customers. The comparison was done between fortified dark chocolate and commercial dark and milk chocolate. Arthrospira carotenoid was fortified with dark chocolate in the form of nanocapsule. It was shown that Arthrospira carotenoid incorporation would enhance buying interests of customers. The color, texture, and flavor increase the acceptability of the product. The main reason to buy arthrospira product was its good antioxidant capacity. Besides, that arthrospira contains anti-inflammatory phycocyanin pigment; it had polysaccharides with antiviral and antitumor capacity. It's another important component was linoleic acid which was helpful for the reduction of total cholesterol and the effect of immunoglobulin (IgE) ( Ramadhanti et al., 2021 ).

8.7. Fortification with lipid-related components

To reduce the total cholesterol intake by individuals, the next study focused on fortification DC with phytosterol esters. According to Botelho et al. Phytosterol reduces the absorption of cholesterol, so it maintains heart health. Phytosterols could be lost at the time of oxidative reaction or during storage or processing. So, the DC bar containing palm oil or 2.2 g phytosterol was stored at 20 °C and 30 °C for a period of 5 months. The highest value of hydroperoxide was obtained after 60 days of storage at the temperature of 20 °C and 30 days of preservation at 30 °C also gave a better result than the control group. Hydroperoxide could be attributed to the increased amount of alpha-linolenic acid present in phytosterol. After 90 days of preservation, the chocolate bar became softer and lighter. But these changes were not affected the sensory profile of the chocolate. Bioactive components were better reserved during 5months of storage at room temperature. This phytosterol-fortified dark chocolate could be a better option in terms of functional food ( Botelho et al., 2014 ).

Fortification with vegetable oil gives several additional health benefits. Vegetable oil is sometimes called nutritional oil due to the high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as linolenic and linoleic acid content with ample sources of monounsaturated fatty acids. Vegetable oil also provides an adequate amount of natural antioxidant components such as Phytosterol, tocopherols, phenolic compounds, carotenoids, etc. Peanut oil contains tocopherol, palmitic acid, and linoleic acid. Cooper et al. focused on the effect of dark chocolate fortified with peanut oil. In this study, microencapsulation was followed to preserve bioactive compounds. The microencapsulated product had low moisture with great stability. Spray drying was applied to encapsulate the product to make the product at a low cost, easily available with higher flexibility. Arabic gum and maltodextrin are generally used in this encapsulation process. The finished product was thermally stable and the physical characteristics were also sufficient for industrial production. The particle interactions were leading to a decrease in the amount of free fatty acids in the finished products. Ultimately viscosity of the product also increased more than the control. Microencapsulation prevented the fatty acid and antioxidant products from oxidation ( Cooper et al., 2007 ).

Dark chocolate was fortified with DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid). According to Tokeret al., product quality was checked after enrichment. Here EPA was added in the form of microencapsulated powder based on fish gelatin and DHA was added as free-flowing microalgal powder. Melting property and rheological property were not significantly altered. It is also well accepted by consumers due to its satisfactory sensorial properties. EPA and DHA in their triglyceride form reduce the hardness of the finished product. So, this enriched dark chocolate could be a medium for delivering omega-3 fatty acids to the human body ( Toker et al., 2018a ).

Here the researcher enriched the properties of dark chocolate by fortification with Santolina chamaecyparissu essential oil. The fortification was done in the concentration of 0.01 ml/g (w/w), 0.02 ml/g (w/w) and 0.03 ml/g (w/w). Physical, textural, and chemical rheological properties and sensory thermal, and antioxidative properties were analyzed after fortification. The antioxidant property was enhanced after enrichment. Rheological property was not significantly altered after fortification. The processing steps were not modified due to the enrichment. For getting the best possible enriched dark chocolate Santolina chamaecyparissu essential oil should be added to 0.02% ( Bölek et al., 2022 ).

8.8. Fortification with protein

Here the researcher enriched the dark chocolate by using whey protein isolate (WPI) and erythritol to make it more suitable for the consumption of athletic and also diabetic individuals. Colour analysis, contact angles and roughness were checked after to get an idea about the surface properties of the dark chocolate. Water activity, melting properties and viscosity was checked. WPI-enriched chocolate produced slight roughness and a more hydrophobic surface. After WPI addition there is an improvement in the shelf life of the chocolate and also the mechanical properties. Protein-enriched chocolate was more resistance to melting. WPI addition produced a denser structure which leads to the firmly packed chocolate. Colour coordinates were not significantly changed by addition. The anti-blooming effect was produced by the addition of WPI and erythritol. Therefore it can be said that highly nutritious dark chocolate was produced ata low cost ( Nastaj et al., 2022 ).

8.9. Fortification with bioactive components

To improve the total flavonol profile of dark chocolate, it was enriched with epicatechin and procyanidin B2. After enrichment, the total flavan 3ol was checked, and this was 4 mg/gm (3 times higher than the conventional chocolate). The amount of procyanidin B1 and B2 was 2.4 times higher in fortified chocolate. The total content of procyanidin B1 and B2 was almost 6 mg/g. The total flavonol content was increased by 39%, which simultaneously increased the total antioxidant capacity by about 56% when compared with the conventional one. Regular consumption of 10 g of enriched chocolate was provided with 200 mg of the flavonol. Cocoa flavonol is believed to maintain the elasticity of the blood vessels that imparts normal blood flow. So this enriched product could be used for the purpose of maintaining healthy cardiovascular health.

Researchers have found that flavonol-rich dark chocolate improves platelet functions. An experimental study was done to understand the exact mechanisms involved in the relation between flavonol-rich chocolate (dark) consumption and the prevention of platelet aggregation. The experiment was carried out on 42 healthy individuals. They were treated with 2 types of chocolate flavan-3-ol-enriched dark chocolate and standard dark and white chocolate. To evaluate the platelet function, blood and urine samples were collected from the individuals after 2 and 6 h of taking enriched chocolate. Flavan-3-ols enriched dark chocolate significantly lowered the adenosine diphosphate-induced platelet aggregation. P-selectin expression in men also decreased simultaneously there is the reduction of platelet aggregation induced by thrombin receptor activating peptide. The new version of dark chocolate is also responsible for the enhancement of thrombin receptor-activated peptide-controlled fibrinogen binding in women and raised the collagen/epinephrine-induced ex vivo bleeding time in women and men. But white chocolate only induced epinephrine/collagen-induced ex vivo bleeding time in men and had a role in decreasing the adenosine diphosphate-controlled platelet P-selectin expression. After considering two types of enriched chocolate, it could be summarised that the two types of chocolates are played a vital role in the reduction of atherogenesis, but Flavan-3-ols in dark chocolate are more effective than in white chocolate ( Ostertag et al., 2013 ).

One comparative study was found in which differentiation was done to check the acute effect of flavan-3-ol-enriched dark chocolate, standard dark chocolate, and white chocolate on the metabolism of humans. Urine and plasma parameters were assessed before 2 h and after 6 h of taking enriched chocolate. Here, 42 healthy volunteers were engaged in this trial. Some significant changes were observed in the level of endogenous metabolites after taking measurements. In plasma, there was no theobromine and catechin was observed. Para-hydroxyphenylacetate (HPA) was increased in both types of dark chocolate after 6 h of intake. The amount of lactate was increased in the case of white chocolate ingestion and concomitantly, it was decreased in flavan-3-ol enriched dark chocolate ingestion. But the amount of urinary pyruvate was reduced because flavan-3-ol enriched dark chocolate increased the rate of gluconeogenesis and glycolysis. Whereas the low level of a glucogenic amino acid (Glycine, arginine, alanine, and valine) indicated an increased rate of gluconeogenesis. Standard dark chocolate and fortified dark chocolate both have the power of oxidative stress-reducing capacity. This statement was well supported by the capacity of creatinine to reduce the power of catechine. The amount of catechine present in dark chocolate can reduce oxidative stress. The reduction of creatinine also plays an indicator of better regulation of ATP usage and PCR pool. Ultimately it was proved that the flavan-3-ol enriched dark chocolate was much more effective in the reduction of oxidative stress by modifying human metabolism ( Ostertag et al., 2017 ).

Another type of unique study was found, where Rice et al. fortified dark chocolate with broken rice berry rice which delivered plenty of anthocyanins to make healthy dark chocolate. Here the researcher partially replaced the cocoa powder with anthocyanin powder. The anthocyanin powder was added in the concentration of 5 g, 10 g, and 15 g. At first, the anthocyanin powder was made from the rice berry by freeze-drying technique and the maltodextrin was taken for coating purposes. The Colour and appearance of the finished product were not affected by the anthocyanin addition. Anthocyanin reduced the hardness of the chocolate. The anthocyanin powder addition increased the total antioxidant capacity measured by the DPPH assay. The DPPH free radical scavenging capacity was increased by about 4–9%. The 10 g anthocyanin fortification produced the best result in terms of sensory evaluation. The amount of anthocyanin concentration was increased with the fortification. This rice berry rice was used to enhance the value of the underutilized Thai crops ( Ngamdee et al., 2020 ). Approaches to dark chocolate fortification are summarised in Fig. 5 .

Approaches to fortify dark chocolate.

9. Process of addition of bioactive ingredients to the dark chocolate

To produce healthy chocolate, it is necessary to add bioactive ingredients in the proper step, and time of preparation. Bioactive components are very sensitive. They are easily destroyed by light and heat and strong chemical components. So, it should be added after conching, Conching is a crucial step where micro-organisms are inactivated and the flow behavior, color, aroma, and texture are developed ( Toker et al., 2019 ). In this step, the chocolate mass is heated to a specific temperature of >40 °C. This process also includes mixing, shearing, and aeration of cocoa mass. The next step is tempering, and in this process, chocolate transforms liquid mass into a solid mass. Before the tempering step, bioactive components are added to restore their stability. Especially, probiotic bacteria can maintain their viable count if added before the tempering step. High temperatures in conching process can destroy the activity of bioactive components ( Fernández et al., 2021 ; Konar et al., 2018 ; Toker et al., 2018a ).

10. Effect of dark chocolate fortification on physical, nutritional, antioxidant profile and health immunity

From the above discussion, it has been shown that the dark chocolate was fortified with different categories of ingredients (Including edible parts and waste parts). Thus, this fortification produces several innovative types of effects on the physical properties as well as nutritional properties ( Table 4 ). Those effects are categorized below.

Effect of dark chocolate fortification and their measurement.

10.1. Effect of fortification on physical and rheological properties

Dark chocolate fortification with different ingredients sometimes imparted alteration of physical properties. Colour, texture, viscosity, flow properties, and Aroma were affected due to fortification. In a maximum number of cases, the fortification or enrichment positively affects the physical properties of dark chocolate. For example, the addition of fruits and nuts will improve the color, texture, and aroma of the product. The sensory properties were not largely affected by the addition of Prebiotic and probiotics. On the other hand, fortification with peanut oil increased the viscosity of the finished product. When cocoa butter was replaced with xanthan gum, the viscosity and shape of the finished product increased. Thus, the new variant of dark chocolate showed better flow behaviour ( Didar, 2021 ; Toker et al., 2018b ).

10.2. Effect of fortification on nutritional properties

The main aim of this review study is to focus on the nutritional enrichment of dark chocolate by fortification. After summarising all the experimental studies related to the fortification of dark chocolate, it can be said that fortification would improve the nutrient content and composition of dark chocolate. For example, black mulberry was a rich source of flavonoids, especially anthocyanin. So, fortification with black mulberry would make dark chocolate richer in anthocyanin content. Another study was focused on black mulberry and sea buckthorn enhancing the total polyphenol content in dark chocolate. Lemon balm extract provided rosmarinic acid content to dark chocolate. Prebiotics and probiotics provide a good environment in the GI tract for the synthesis of the vitamin B complex. Fortification with beta carotene increased the total vitamin A content and calorie content of dark chocolate. As well as the fortification enriches the total vitamin D content of dark chocolate ( Didar, 2021 ). Different types of polysaccharides' fortification increase the total fiber content of the novel type of fortified dark chocolate. The amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids were increased with the fortification of phytosterol and peanut oil. The DHA and EPA fortification enrich the essential fatty acids content in dark chocolate.

10.3. Effect of fortification on antioxidant properties

The overall antioxidant capacity of dark chocolate increased more than the control after adding nutritious ingredients. The bioactive component contains the highest amount of antioxidant capacity. The majority of the studies were focused on the enhancement of the total antioxidant capacity of dark chocolate. Polyphenolic compound and total flavonol content were responsible for the antioxidant capacity. Those components are believed for the best removal of free radicals from the body. This maintains a balance between the total antioxidant status and oxidative stress. Anthocyanin also alters the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway, which ultimately raises the functioning of several antioxidant enzymes such as Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD), Glutathione Peroxidase, and Catalase ( Kropat et al., 2013 ). Black mulberry, mulberry, buckthorn, lemon balm extract, cinnamon, raspberry leaf extract, astaxanthin, and flavon-3-ol components were added successfully to increase the total antioxidant capacity of dark chocolate. The black mulberry contains a high amount of anthocyanin, and lemon balm extract contains rosmarinic acid, cinnamon contains cinnamaldehyde, etc. are the specific bioactive components present in those fortifying agents. Different properties after fortification are summarised in Fig. 6 .

Alteration of different properties after fortification.

10.4. Effect of fortification on human health

One of the major aims of this review study is to explain the effect on health after fortification. Every study aimed to fortify dark chocolate in such a way that it would provide some extra beneficial role to the human body. For example-when dark chocolate was fortified with black mulberry, it became anthocyanin-rich. Anthocyanin plays multiple roles in our bodies. The most important function was to reduce copper-induced LDL oxidation, which is a very crucial function for the prevention of atherosclerosis. Anthocyanin is responsible for the reduction of total cholesterol, LDL and triglyceride level ( Habanova et al., 2016 ). Sea buckthorn and mulberry fortification imparted several extra beneficial roles to the human body. But the most specific function was to reduce oxidative stress due to its high polyphenol and flavonoid content. When the fortification was done with lemon balm extract, it became rich in rosmarinic acid content as well as it was provided an immune-modulatory, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-microbial, hepatic and renal protectant agent, anti-allergic, etc. ( Munoz et al., 2013 ; Nunes et al., 2017 ; Rahman et al., 2016 ). Cinnamon fortified dark chocolate would provide several medicinal properties to the consumers. The main bioactive component cinnamaldehyde was the main responsible factor for the reduction of oxidative reaction. Besides this, cinnamaldehyde plays several roles, such as preventing CVD and diabetes, reducing inflammation in our body, and protecting against cancer and neurodegenerative diseases ( Gruenwald et al., 2010 ; Thorsen, 2009 ).

Numerous studies were focused on fortification with probiotic bacteria. Probiotic and dark chocolate is a unique combination. Those probiotics are very advantageous for maintaining healthy microflora in the intestine. It also reduces the growth of pathogenic microorganisms and is also helpful for the production of vitamin B complex in the human body. Probiotics can prevent the occurrence of certain types of cancers. Probiotics are used for a therapeutic purpose to resist Helicobacter pylori infections. Dark chocolate could be a good vehicle for delivering live microorganisms to the human body ( Goldin, 1998 ; Roobab et al., 2020 ). On the other hand, prebiotics was also combined with dark chocolate in previous experimental studies. Prebiotics are helpful for the growth of probiotic bacteria. These also increase the bulk of the faeces. Thus regular use of prebiotics could avoid the occurrence of constipation ( Slavin, 2013 ; Verbeke et al., 2015 ). In some studies, sucrose was replaced with artificial sweeteners with the addition of polysaccharides. We all know that sucrose is an important component of dark chocolate. But the replacement of sugar made the chocolate suitable for diabetic patients. These newly developed finished products contain fewer calories also. So, it could be taken by obese individuals also ( Delgado and Tamashiro, 2018 ).

Another study was found in which the fortification was done with the addition of raspberry leaves. These were also rich sources of polyphenols and flavonoids. It was added due to its high antioxidant capacities. When dark chocolate was fortified with astaxanthin, it was proved that it could be applied as an antioxidant supplement. The consumer would be benefited from a combined effect of dark chocolate and astaxanthin. Astaxanthin can inhibit LDL oxidation. It is capable of neutralizing the amount of singlet oxygen. It also modulates the gene function and immune function ( Gentili et al., 2013 ; Rao et al., 2013 ). So, it could be helpful for the reduction of several oxidative markers in the human body. It also delays the progression of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and also cancer in fibrosarcoma, embryonic fibroblasts, melanoma, etc. ( Chen et al., 2017 ; Nagaraj et al., 2012 ). Besides this role of astaxanthin, is very helpful in the treatment of central and peripheral nervous diseases ( Fakhri et al., 2018 ).

Fewer studies had focused on the addition of vitamins with dark chocolate. Vitamin D and beta carotene were added to dark chocolate to increase the vitamin content in dark chocolate. When dark chocolate is fortified with vitamin D, it not only provides good bone health but also protects the endothelial membrane stability and thus maintains the innate and adaptive immune response ( Charoenngam and Holick, 2020 ). The sources of beta carotene were Spirulina platensis and arthospira. Spirulina platensis is a rich source of essential fatty acids, protein, vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids. That impended inflammation, hypertension, cancer, etc., and is also responsible for the reduction of the glycemic load of the blood ( Matsui et al., 2003 ). Besides their good antioxidant properties, arthrospira contains anti-inflammatory phycocyanin pigment and also contains antiviral and anti-tumor capabilities. Thus, the fortified product could be easily used for the prevention of vitamin deficiency syndrome and also the prevention of numerous diseases ( Jara et al., 2018 ).

The addition of phytosterol and peanut oil could lead to an increase in the concentration of PUFA and several essential fatty acids in dark chocolate when fortified with these substances. The notable effect of phytosterol is the reduction of blood cholesterol by making the cholesterol insoluble in intestinal miscelle ( Quílez et al., 2003 ; Trautwein and Demonty, 2007 ). Thus, this product could be used for the maintenance of heart health. On the other side, DHA and EPA fortification lead to better brain development and brain functioning ( Menesi et al., 2009 ; Zhang et al., 2019 ).

Dark chocolate fortification with flavonol improves platelet functioning. Besides anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects, it prevents the ADP-induced platelet aggregation in the arteries and decreases P selectin expression, simultaneously stopping the occurrence of atherosclerosis ( Ballard and Junior, 2018 ; Vita, 2005 ). Flavonol-enriched dark chocolate also provided better utilization of ADP. It was responsible for lowering the creatinine level, which was the indicator of PCR pool and better ADP regulation ( Montagnana et al., 2018 ). The effect of dark chocolate fortification is summarised in Fig. 7 .

Health benefits of fortified dark chocolate.

11. Consumer acceptance of fortified dark chocolate

The success of any food product development resides in its Consumer acceptance. The product's popularity is entirely dependent on the consumer's satisfaction. From the very fast day of dark chocolate production, it was getting popularity due to its sensory properties. Consumers play an important role in the innovation of new product. Recently consumption rate is increased due to its remarkable health benefits ( Flammer et al., 2007 ; Mattia et al., 2017 ; Moreno et al., 2012 ). One of the main components in dark chocolate is a polyphenol which is responsible for the anticipation of numerous diseases like high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and inflammatory diseases ( Oracz and Nebesny, 2016 ). But, due to its ample amount of energy content, it is not permitted for higher intake. To get the best result, dark chocolate intake should be the proper amount ( Bartkiene et al., 2021 ; Zugravu and Otelea, 2019 ). One of the major causes of dark chocolate's popularity is its flavor and texture. Fatty acids confer texture to the finished products, and volatile compounds give texture to dark chocolate. Polymorphism of cocoa butter could be prevented by the tempering process. Tempering gives a better appearance to chocolate. For example, makes it glossier and increases its shelf life. This is also a good sign of consumer acceptance ( Ligęza and Czarkowska, 2019 ). The melting properties of dark chocolate are dependent on the emulsifier used, fatty acid profile, storage time, particle size, etc. ( Afoakwa et al., 2008a , 2009 ).

In earlier days, the consumption of chocolate was only limited to children, but now it has become more popular among all age groups due to its functional properties mainly developed by fortification ( Fernández et al., 2021 ). The nutritional approach always gives a positive effect on the consumers. Dark chocolate is rich in healthy fatty acids and also several bioactive compounds such as catechine, epicatechin, caffeine, flavonoids, total polyphenolic compounds, etc. ( Virgens et al., 2021 ). Those components provide multiple health benefits, which have already been discussed before. Sometimes these components are responsible for the generation of bitterness and astringency. This could be minimized by fortification. Fortified dark chocolate can support the nutritional status of the population in a better way. The consumer acceptance of dark chocolate is increased after adding micronutrients to it. Researchers have already established the positive relationship between dark chocolate fortification and health promotion. Dark chocolate is already fortified with anthocyanin which imparts modulation of different functions in the human body. It can promote anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects with a protective effect against DNA damage. LDL, triglyceride, and total cholesterol are reduced by regular intake of anthocyanins ( Kuntz et al., 2014 ; Triebel et al., 2012 ; Weisel et al., 2006 ). After the addition of spices to the dark chocolate for example cinnamon consumers get to benefit from its anti-microbial properties ( Keith, 2019 ). Chocolate was fortified with prebiotics and probiotics to promote better gut health ( Roberfroid, 2000 ). Polysaccharide fortification makes dark chocolate much healthy to attract the obese population ( Mišurcová et al., 2012 ). Vitamin fortification increases the vitamin content of dark chocolate thus it can be used as a supplementary product for the prevention of vitamin deficiency disorders. Essential fatty acid fortification could improve skin-related problems ( Ruxton et al., 2004 ). Flavonol fortification gives added antioxidant properties to the consumers which reduce the possibility of degenerative diseases.

In Columbia, cocoa products were taken for getting the remedy of fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, indigestion, etc. ( Dillinger et al., 2000 ). Consumers can use fortified dark chocolate for therapeutic purposes for the prevention of various types of diseases. They can also use for getting instant energy to overcome physical and mental stress. It can be a good nutritional supplement for children as it is dense in valuable nutrients. An aged person also can take this as a dessert item by replacing calorie-dense sweet items. So, fortified dark chocolate can use on multiple grounds for solving various problems.

12. Conclusion and future perspective

Nutritional aspects of dark chocolate were improved after fortification. The fortification was done with numerous ingredients like fruits (mulberry) and spices and herbs (cinnamon), probiotics ( Lactobacillus ), prebiotics (inulin, Xanthan gum), etc. Those fortifications are aimed not only to improve the nutritional qualities of the dark chocolate but also can be used for a therapeutic purpose to avoid the early occurrence of degenerative diseases. Researchers have found that fortification upgrades platelet functioning and enhances cardiovascular health. Even some replacement studies focused on the calorie reduction of chocolate for the weight management of an obese person. The most prominent health benefit is the prevention of cancer due to its excellent antioxidant property. Dark chocolate is believed to scavenge free radicals. Fortification also modulates the physical properties of the chocolate, for example, rheological properties and melting properties, and also amplifies the consumer acceptability of the chocolate. Though a wide range of fortification studies has already been discussed in this review, it can still be modified in several aspects to contribute some unique advantages to societies. So, some future studies can be done to focus on these areas. Dark chocolate fortification can be done with some waste materials thus, the nutrient loss could be minimized. Dark chocolate also can be fortified by applying some inexpensive technologies to decrease the overall cost of the end product. Although all age groups consume dark chocolate, future research can be dealt to enhance the physical performance of individuals such as sportspeople. Fortification could be done in such a way that it can reduce the oxidative stress of sports people and improve their overall performance.

Not applicable.

Availability of data and material

Code availability, ethical approval, consent to participate.

The authors have agreed to participate in the publication of the paper.

Consent to publish

All authors have agreed to publish the paper.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Sharmistha Samanta: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, All authors read the final version of the manuscript and approved for final submission. Tanmay Sarkar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Supervision, All authors read the final version of the manuscript and approved for final submission. Runu Chakraborty: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Writing – review & editing, Reviewing and Editing, All authors read the final version of the manuscript and approved for final submission. Maksim Rebezov: Image preparation, All authors read the final version of the manuscript and approved for final submission. Mohammad Ali Shariati: Image preparation, All authors read the final version of the manuscript and approved for final submission. Muthu Thiruvengadam: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Supervision, Writing – review & editing, Reviewing and Editing, All authors read the final version of the manuscript and approved for final submission. Kannan R.R. Rengasamy: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Writing – review & editingEditing, Reviewing and Editing, All authors read the final version of the manuscript and approved for final submission.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Cadbury Crisis Management Case Study: Preserving Trust in Times of Crisis

In the realm of beloved chocolate brands, Cadbury has long held a cherished place in the hearts and taste buds of consumers worldwide.

However, even the most esteemed companies are not immune to crises that can pose significant threats to their reputation.

Effective crisis management becomes paramount in such moments, serving as the linchpin in preserving brand equity and consumer trust.

In this blog post, we delve into the realm of Cadbury’s crisis management, exploring a notable incident that tested the brand’s resilience and examining the strategies they employed to navigate the storm.

By understanding Cadbury’s response and the lessons gleaned from their experience, we can gain valuable insights into crisis management in the food industry and the critical importance of safeguarding brand reputation.

The Cadbury crisis: an overview 

In October 2003, just a month before the festive season of Diwali, customers in Mumbai reported the discovery of worms in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates. Responding promptly, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took action by seizing chocolate stocks produced at Cadbury’s Pune plant.

Cadbury defended itself by stating that the infestation could not have occurred during the manufacturing process and suggested that poor storage at retailers might have been the cause of the reported worm cases.

However, the FDA remained unconvinced. Uttam Khobragade, the FDA commissioner, expressed doubts, stating, “While it was presumed that worms entered the chocolates during storage, what about the packaging? If the packaging was not proper or airtight, it could be considered a manufacturing defect due to unhygienic conditions or improper packaging.”

This exchange of allegations and counter-allegations between Cadbury and the FDA led to negative publicity that significantly impacted Cadbury’s sales. During a time when Cadbury typically experiences a 15% sales boost due to festive season demand, their sales dropped by 30%. As a result, Cadbury’s advertising went off air for a month and a half following Diwali, as consumers seemed to lose interest in their chocolate cravings.

Facing intense scrutiny, Cadbury took action by launching an education initiative called “Vishwa’s” in October itself. This initiative aimed to educate 190,000 retailers in key states. However, it was what Cadbury did in January 2004 that truly helped restore the brand’s reputation.

Investing around Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million), Cadbury revamped the packaging of Dairy Milk by introducing imported machinery. The new metallic poly-flow packaging, despite being costlier by 10-15%, did not lead to a price increase for the product.

Bharat Puri, managing director of Cadbury’s India, stated, “Although we are addressing a few bars out of the 30 million we sell every month, we believe that as a responsible company, consumers should have complete faith in our products. So, even if it requires significant investment and change, we must not let consumer confidence erode.”

Simultaneously, Cadbury enlisted the support of brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan for extensive endorsement, with the actor risking his personal reputation for the brand.

Cadbury also increased advertising spending for the January to March quarter by more than 15%. The brand’s recovery began in May 2004, and by June, Cadbury claimed that consumer confidence had been restored. Experts believe that Cadbury’s success was due to their proactive and direct approach in addressing the crisis. Moreover, consumers were more forgiving because of the emotional connection they had with the brand in India.

Explanation of the potential impact on Cadbury’s reputation and consumer trust

The potential impact of the crisis on Cadbury’s reputation and consumer trust cannot be overstated. Cadbury had spent years cultivating a strong brand image built on trust, quality, and indulgence.

Consumers who had long associated Cadbury with delightful moments and safe indulgence were suddenly confronted with doubts and concerns about the integrity of the brand.

The presence of foreign objects in their beloved chocolate bars not only raised immediate health and safety worries but also shook the trust that consumers had placed in Cadbury’s manufacturing processes.

The crisis threatened to erode the emotional connection between Cadbury and its customers, potentially leading to long-lasting damage to the brand’s reputation and a loss of consumer loyalty. The way Cadbury handled the crisis would be critical in determining whether they could restore faith in their products and reassure customers that their commitment to quality and safety remained unwavering.

Cadbury’s Response: Swift and Transparent Action 

Here are three points that explain the response of Cadbury to the crisis:

A. Immediate actions taken by Cadbury to address the crisis

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Cadbury swiftly sprang into action to address the crisis and mitigate its impact on consumer trust. Their response was marked by a combination of transparency, accountability, and proactive measures. First and foremost, Cadbury initiated an immediate recall of the affected products from the market, demonstrating their commitment to ensuring consumer safety.

This recall was accompanied by clear and concise public announcements, both through traditional media channels and online platforms, informing consumers about the issue and advising them to refrain from consuming the affected products.

Cadbury launched an internal investigation in collaboration with independent third-party experts. This step aimed to determine how the foreign objects had made their way into the production process and identify any potential lapses in quality control.

In addition to the recall and investigation, Cadbury established a dedicated consumer helpline and email contact to address any concerns or inquiries from customers. This direct line of communication allowed affected individuals to seek information and assistance, demonstrating Cadbury’s commitment to maintaining open dialogue with their consumer base.

Moreover, Cadbury proactively engaged with regulatory bodies, such as food safety authorities and government agencies, to ensure compliance with relevant regulations and collaborate on resolving the crisis. This collaboration helped in conducting thorough investigations, sharing information, and implementing corrective measures.

Throughout their response, Cadbury remained transparent, providing regular updates to the public and stakeholders on the progress made in resolving the crisis. By openly acknowledging the issue and taking swift action, Cadbury aimed to rebuild consumer trust and demonstrate their commitment to the highest standards of product safety and quality.

B. Emphasis on transparency, open communication, and acknowledgement of the issue

Cadbury recognized the critical role of transparency, open communication, and sincere acknowledgement in their crisis management strategy. Understanding that silence or evasion could further erode consumer trust, they chose a different path.

From the onset, Cadbury openly acknowledged the issue, taking full responsibility for the presence of foreign objects in their products. They did not attempt to downplay or minimize the severity of the situation, but rather acknowledged the potential risks and concerns that consumers may have.

To ensure transparent communication, Cadbury provided regular updates to the public and stakeholders about the progress of their investigations, steps taken to address the issue, and any findings or developments. This transparency helped to build confidence among consumers that Cadbury was actively working to rectify the situation and prevent similar incidents in the future.

Moreover, Cadbury prioritized open communication channels with their consumers. They promptly established a dedicated helpline and email contact to address individual inquiries and concerns. By providing accessible means for consumers to voice their questions or fears, Cadbury demonstrated a commitment to engaging in two-way communication and actively listening to their customers.

Engagement with customers, media, and regulatory bodies

Cadbury demonstrated proactive engagement with various stakeholders throughout the crisis, including customers, media, and regulatory bodies. Here are some examples of their efforts:

• Customers: Cadbury promptly set up a dedicated helpline and email contact to address customer inquiries, concerns, and feedback. This direct line of communication allowed affected individuals to seek information, share their experiences, and receive assistance from Cadbury’s customer service team.
• Media: Cadbury issued press releases and media statements to communicate their response to the crisis, including the immediate recall, investigation, and measures being implemented to ensure product safety. These official statements aimed to provide accurate information and address media inquiries promptly.
• Regulatory bodies: Cadbury collaborated closely with relevant food safety authorities and regulatory bodies to ensure compliance with regulations and to share information regarding the crisis. This collaboration helped in conducting thorough investigations and implementing appropriate corrective actions.

Evaluation of Cadbury’s crisis management approach and its effectiveness

Cadbury’s crisis management approach can be evaluated as highly effective based on several key factors:

• Swift and proactive response: Cadbury’s immediate actions, including the recall of affected products and launching an internal investigation, demonstrated a sense of urgency and a commitment to addressing the crisis promptly. This swift response helped contain the situation and prevent further harm to consumers.
• Transparency and open communication: Cadbury’s emphasis on transparency and open communication was commendable. They openly acknowledged the issue, took responsibility, and provided regular updates to the public, customers, media, and regulatory bodies. This transparency fostered trust and allowed stakeholders to stay informed throughout the crisis.
• Stakeholder engagement: Cadbury actively engaged with stakeholders such as customers, media, and regulatory bodies. They established a dedicated helpline and email contact for customers, responded to media inquiries, and collaborated with regulatory authorities. This proactive engagement demonstrated a commitment to listening, addressing concerns, and working collaboratively to resolve the crisis.
• Accountability and commitment to quality: By taking responsibility for the contamination incident, Cadbury showed accountability for the lapse in their manufacturing processes. They acknowledged the potential harm caused to consumers and reassured them of their commitment to maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety.
• Learning and improvement: Cadbury’s crisis management approach also involved conducting internal investigations, collaborating with third-party experts, and implementing corrective measures. This commitment to learning from the incident and making necessary improvements indicated a proactive approach to preventing future occurrences and continuously enhancing product safety.

Identification of key lessons and best practices for crisis management in the food industry

Identification of key lessons and best practices for crisis management in the food industry:

• Prioritize consumer safety: The primary focus during a crisis in the food industry should be on ensuring consumer safety. Swift actions, such as recalls and investigations, must be taken to address any potential risks and protect consumers from harm.
• Transparency and open communication: Transparency is crucial in maintaining trust during a crisis. Companies should openly acknowledge the issue, provide timely and accurate information to stakeholders, and communicate updates regularly. This includes engaging with customers, media, and regulatory bodies to address concerns and share progress.
• Swift response and proactive measures: Time is of the essence in crisis management. Acting swiftly to contain the issue, launching investigations, and implementing corrective actions demonstrate a commitment to resolving the crisis effectively and minimizing its impact.
• Establish a dedicated crisis management team: Having a designated crisis management team with clear roles and responsibilities is essential. This team should be equipped to handle crisis situations, make quick decisions, and coordinate communication across various channels.
• Collaborate with stakeholders: Engage with relevant stakeholders, including customers, media, and regulatory bodies. Collaborating with regulatory authorities ensures compliance and regulatory support, while open communication with customers and media helps address concerns, provide accurate information, and rebuild trust.
• Learn from the crisis: Conduct thorough investigations to identify the root cause of the crisis. This allows for improvements in manufacturing processes, quality control measures, and overall safety protocols to prevent similar incidents in the future. Continuously learning and adapting based on the crisis experience is vital.
• Preparedness through crisis simulations: Conducting crisis simulations and drills in advance can help organizations prepare for potential crises. These simulations allow teams to practice their response strategies, identify gaps, and refine their crisis management plans.
• Monitor and respond to social media : Social media plays a significant role in crisis communication. Monitor social media platforms to gauge public sentiment, address customer concerns, and promptly respond to queries or complaints.
• Maintain brand consistency: During a crisis, it is essential to maintain consistency in messaging and actions across all communication channels. This consistency helps in building trust and avoiding confusion among stakeholders.
• Rebuild trust through actions: Regaining consumer trust takes time. Implement measures to enhance product safety, quality control, and quality assurance processes. Launch consumer-centric initiatives and communicate these actions to demonstrate the brand’s commitment to customer satisfaction and safety.

Final Words 

Cadbury’s crisis management approach serves as an excellent example of effective strategies and best practices in the food industry. By swiftly addressing the crisis, prioritizing consumer safety, and embracing transparency, Cadbury demonstrated their commitment to their customers and their brand integrity.

The lessons learned from Cadbury’s crisis management are applicable to any organization in the food industry. Prioritizing consumer safety should always be the guiding principle, followed by open communication with stakeholders and a proactive approach to resolving the issue.

Remember, a crisis can be an opportunity to showcase a company’s resilience and commitment to its customers. By implementing these best practices and being prepared, organizations can navigate crises with greater confidence, protect their brand reputation, and rebuild trust even in the face of adversity.

About The Author

Tahir Abbas

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Environmental analysis along the supply chain of dark, milk and white chocolate: a life cycle comparison

• Sustainability of Food P&P Systems
• Open access
• Published: 04 September 2020
• Volume 26 , pages 807–821, ( 2021 )

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• F. R. Bianchi 1 ,
• L. Moreschi 1 ,
• M. Gallo 1 ,
• E. Vesce 2 &
• A. Del Borghi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3231-084X 1  

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Environmental impact evaluation in the food sector is a key topic, due to both stricter legislations and higher consumer awareness towards sustainable choices. The case of chocolate is a remarkable example, owing to the increasing demand and the complex production process from cocoa beans to final bars. The present study aims at assessing the environmental impacts related to three chocolate types (dark, milk and white) through life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology.

Consistent with food Product Category Rules (PCRs) and previous LCA literature, the study follows a cradle to grave approach. Among different raw material productions, it focuses above all on cocoa farming assuming three possible producer countries (i.e. Ghana, Ecuador and Indonesia), so that the influence of specific weather conditions and soil properties is underlined. Since the manufacturing step is supposed in the North Italian factory, different transport distances are also taken into account. Moreover, the work focuses on the possible use of several packaging materials and following disposal issues. In view of the open discussion about the most suitable functional unit in food sector, mass and energy amount approaches are compared.

Results and discussion

Along chocolate supply chain, different phases are evaluated according to LCA methodology. Among analyzed producer countries: Indonesia monoculture case results to be the most impacting situation, due to an intensive use of agrochemicals; pesticides give a wide contribution in Ecuador, whereas Ghana is penalized by the highest water consumption. The transport of beans to manufacturing plant influences mostly the GWP, owing to long travelled distances. Considering the whole production process, cocoa derivatives and milk powder are the main contributors to every impact category. From packaging point of view, the best solution is the use of a single polypropylene layer. A sensitivity analysis is performed to check the validity of different allocation procedures: both mass and energy content allocations lead to similar results.

Conclusions

Through LCA methodology, the life cycle of dark, milk and white chocolate is compared. The study assesses different potential environmental impacts, assuming mass and energy content as possible functional units and references for allocation procedures. For all combinations of functional units and allocation rules, dark chocolate globally presents the best environmental performance, whereas the other two types have similar environmental impacts.

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1 Introduction

Nowadays, the environmental sustainability is emerging as key-point in the agri-food sector because of its remarkable impacts. For instance, food sector causes more than 25% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Solazzo et al. 2016 ). It needs high water consumption and it uses about half of ice-free land area on the Earth for cropland and pasture, which provokes deforestation (Barona et al. 2010 ). Moreover, alimentary brands focus more and more on these issues, since consumers begin to be conscious of the global pollution and to consider not only the product quality but also its potential damages to the environment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) currently is the best standardized methodology to analyze the environmental aspects since it enables to highlight and study correlations between production systems and natural resource depletion, i.e. Water-Energy-Food Nexus (Del Borghi et al. 2020 ). Several studies aimed at evaluating environmental consequences due to food production chain: fruit and grain farm (Ingrao et al. 2015 ; Tricase et al. 2018 ), processed foods (Canellada et al. 2018 ; Del Borghi et al. 2014 ; Ingrao et al. 2018 ), seafood and meat (Hospido et al. 2006 ; López-Andrés et al. 2018 ). In this context, packaging is also considered to have an effective impact estimation (Del Borghi et al. 2018 ; Strazza et al. 2016 ). However, LCA still seeks to become a tool for combined analyses of economic value and eco-burden, creating new sustainable business models in view of the transition towards a circular economy (Scheepens et al. 2016 ).

Environmental concerns are critical in chocolate supply chain. Cocoa is only produced in tropical zones of America, Africa and Asia growing in specific humidity conditions, whereas transformation processes and principal markets are usually in Europe and North America. Indeed, there is a remarkable contrast between cocoa production and demand in different areas: for instance, Europe is the major consumer with an average annual request of 1812 ktons, followed by the USA characterized by a national consumption of 775 ktons, while only 146 ktons are eaten in Africa, which is the first worldwide farmer with 3185 ktons of produced cocoa (García-Herrero et al. 2019 ). Therefore, raw materials are transported for long distances. The manufacturing is quite complex because several co-products can be derived from cocoa beans and other ingredients are added to obtain the final product. The effects due to cocoa life cycle cannot be neglected anymore, in view of the increasing chocolate consumption. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the global demand of this food and its derivatives has been risen about 91% in the last 20 years (FAO 2017 ). If different types are considered, the dark chocolate is expected to have a trend of 8.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) (CBI 2019 ), followed by white one 6.5% CAGR (Persistence Market Research 2018 ) and milk one 6.2% CAGR (Transparency Market Research 2018 ) during the assessment period 2017–2026. The increasing demand has provoked cocoa farming intensification by expanding into new lands, including forest ones, or by using more fertilizers and pesticides to improve the yield.

Nowadays, there are no specific environmental certifications based on quantitative assessment like the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) by the International EPD® System or the related Product Category Rules (PCRs) (ISO 2006a ) for the chocolate sector. However, several studies propose the life cycle assessment of cocoa derivatives. The LCA is a standardized methodological tool that enables the assessment of the main environmental aspects associated to a specific product “from the cradle to the grave”, through the evaluation of different input and output flows and their correlated potential environmental impacts according to ISO 14040 (ISO 2006b ) and ISO 14044 (ISO 2006c ). In food fields, there are a lot of discussions concerning LCA approaches to be followed (McAuliffe et al. 2020 ). One of the main issues is the definition of proper functional units, which should provide a measurement of specific peculiarity of every product so as to enable the comparison among different systems. One kilogram of product is usually assumed (Roy et al. 2009 ), still this does not efficaciously represent the actual quantitative consumption of different food. A more realistic view is provided focusing on the nutritional value and the caloric intake. Here, the evaluation of potential environmental impacts is paired with health benefits. Some examples of this innovative perspective are the use of grams of proteins (Sonesson et al. 2017 ), energy amount (Nemecek et al. 2016 ), nutritional quality index or fullness factor (Chapa et al. 2020 ) as LCA functional unit.

In the case of chocolate, the common approach proposes the use of mass unit as reference for different inputs and outputs of the system. Its life cycle is usually divided into cocoa farming, transport, manufacturing, sale and end of life. There are some authors that analyze specifically the raw material cultivation in different areas: Ghana (Ntiamoah and Afrane 2008 ), Colombia (Ortiz et al. 2014 ) or Indonesia (Utomo et al. 2016 ). Others also consider the manufacturing (Büsser and Jungbluth 2009 ; Pérez Neira 2016 ), or the transport and the transformation neglecting the cultivation step (Vesce et al. 2016 ). Only packaging material can be also studied specifically (Allione et al. 2011 ), whereas few works take into account the whole life cycle (Miah et al. 2018 ; Recanati et al. 2018 ; Konstantas et al. 2018 ). Still, in all these cases, they focus on dark chocolate or chocolate derivatives, such as chocolate biscuits and wafers or moulded chocolate. So, the obtained results are not specific for chocolate life cycle, but they are influenced by a lot of other factors. Moreover, the milk and white types are rarely analyzed.

Here, the present study aims at providing a more complete analysis through LCA methodology, based on a “cradle to grave” approach. Three common chocolate types (dark, milk and white, each one with a specific recipe) are evaluated and compared in order to detect which ingredients provoke the major potential environmental impacts. Since cocoa origin has more and more influenced consumer choice in last years (Torres-Moreno et al. 2012 ), a more detailed analysis of farming step is performed. The comparison among different producer countries highlights the relevance of this phase and how the results vary in function of the considered cocoa supply chain. Another relevant factor is due to packaging, so three different commercial solutions are compared. Firstly, the study follows the common literature approach of 1 kg of product as functional unit, consequently all the allocations are performed in terms of mass. Then, in view of chocolate calorie intake (Cooper et al. 2008 ), the analysis is also carried out considering 1 kcal as functional unit, to highlight if the previous identified trends are confirmed by this second approach.

2 Methods and data

The environmental potential impacts deriving from chocolate production are assessed according to LCA methodology as defined by ISO 14040-44 (ISO 2006b , c ). Since no specific PCR is furnished by the International EPD® System for this product category, suggested approach for generic food products is followed (IES 2019 ).

2.1 Goal and scope of the study

The present study aims at detecting the potential environmental impacts due to the life cycle of three chocolate types: dark, milk and white ones. Two different approaches are followed: firstly, 1 kg of chocolate is assumed as functional unit according to the guidelines of the PCR Basic Module for food products (IES 2019 ); then, 1 kcal is defined as functional unit for a further comparison of the analyzed products. The study considers the life cycle “from cradle to grave”, dividing it into raw material production (i.e. cocoa, milk powder, sugar and final product packaging), cocoa transport, chocolate manufacturing and packaging waste management (Fig. 1 ). The packaging material for cocoa bean transport, usually jute sacks, is excluded. The retail and storage steps are neglected since they equally apply to three chocolate types and do not affect the comparison.

System boundaries

The study is performed using the simulation software SimaPro 9 and the database Ecoinventv.3.5 (Wernet et al. 2016 ).

According to the PCR Basic Module for food products (IES 2019 ), the following indicators for environmental impacts and for resource use are considered: Acidification potential (AP) according to CML 2001 non-baseline—January 2016 (University of Leiden 2016 ); eutrophication potential (EP), global warming potential (GWP), abiotic depletion – elements (ADP, el), abiotic depletion – fossil fuels (ADP, ff) according to CML 2001 baseline—January 2016 (University of Leiden 2016 ); photochemical oxidant creation potential (POCP) according to ReCiPe 2008 (Goedkoop et al. 2009 ); net water use and cumulative energy demand (CED).

2.2 Life cycle inventory

In the inventory analysis, data about dark, milk and white chocolate supply chain are collected by secondary and tertiary sources: in particular, numerical data for cocoa co-products and milk powder production and for chocolate manufacturing are referred to existing recent literature, whereas data for the production of sugar and other auxiliary materials (e.g. fertilizers, pesticides) are retrieved from specific processes available in Ecoinvent v. 3.5 (Wernet et al. 2016 ). Then, all phases involved in the supply chain are modelled through SimaPro 9 software. The percentage of different ingredients is defined according to All. I, d.lgs. n. 178/2003 (European Directive 2000/36/CE) (ADICONSUM 2003 ). The lecithin, used as an emulsifier, is neglected due to low present amount. Table 1 reports proposed chocolate composition, with the reference ranges in European legislation.

In the following paragraphs, inventory data of the main steps of chocolate supply chain are presented in more details.

2.2.1 Raw material production and transport

The basic ingredient of chocolate is cocoa, which is cultivated in tropical regions. In the present LCA, three countries are taken into account as cocoa producers: Ecuador, Ghana and Indonesia. In a commercial stand, there is usually a density of 1100–1200 trees/ha. Since the yield is low in comparison with other tropical cultivars—for instance 150–450 kg cocoa/ha (ICCO 2020 ) instead of 500–1000 kg coffee/ha (Gebreselassie et al. 2017 ) and 30,000–50,000 kg banana/ha (Nayak et al. 2019 )—the land occupation is very high. Moreover, cacao trees are not disease-resistant, so an intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides is required to increase the production. As shown in Table 2 , input data for three considered areas change because of the climate, the humidity and the soil characteristics. In Ecuador case study, a traditional process, characterized by low fertilizer use per hectare and poor cocoa yield, is represented (Pérez Neira 2016 ). A traditional approach is also modelled for Ghana (Recanati et al. 2018 ), while both traditional monoculture and agroforestry systems are studied for Indonesia (Utomo et al. 2016 ). For the latter country, data are referred to cocoa pod: therefore, the request of 16 kg of cocoa pods to obtain 1 kg of cocoa dried beans is assumed. The emissions deriving from the application of fertilizers are evaluated according to the existing literature (Bouwman et al. 2002 ; EMEP/CORINAIR 2002 ; IPCC 2006 ) and are reported in Table 3 . The emissions deriving from the use of diesel are instead evaluated according to specific Ecoinvent database processes.

When cocoa fruits are harvested manually, the external husks are eliminated and usually left on fields as fertilizers. Then, there is the cocoa bean fermentation, which is a spontaneous process to improve aromas and reduce liquid content. The sun-drying for water and acidity elimination follows. Both phases do not request any specific energetic inputs (in few cases an artificial drying with hot air is used).

The dried cocoa beans are transported from tropical zones, where they are grown, to factories in North America and Europe. The itinerary is divided into three parts:

A first route from the cultivation site to the departure port by a lorry 3.5-7.5 t EURO3

A trans-oceanic ship transport to the chocolate producer country

The final step from the Italian harbour to the transformation factory by a lorry 16-32 t EURO5

All transportation data are presented in Table 4 . The first step is estimated from literature (Pérez Neira 2016 ; Ntiamoah and Afrane 2008 ; Recanati et al. 2018 ), whereas the others are calculated considering the distance between the specific port and the manufacturing factory located in Piedmont, Italy.

The input data of other ingredients are calculated considering the needed different amounts for every specific chocolate type (according to Table 1 ).

2.2.2 Chocolate manufacturing

The transformation step requests several unit operations. After the cleaning and the selection, cocoa dried beans are roasted at 120–180 °C to develop aromas and to sterilize the product. Then, the milling transforms beans into cocoa liquor, which is partly fed at the pressing operation to divide the cocoa fat butter from the cocoa dried cake (its further grinding produces cocoa powder). After addition of all ingredients, the mixture is blended through the refining and the conching units at 50–80 °C. The obtained liquid chocolate is tempered in order to cool it down slowly and then it is poured into specific moulds before wrapping into packaging. So, whereas water use is low, the whole process needs high amount of energy in the form of electricity, heat and cooling. A valuable opportunity is the addition of a trigeneration system to optimize process design, as described in Table 5 (Reverberi et al. 2011 ). As reported in Table 6 , both manufacturing phases are modelled according to Recanati et al. ( 2018 ): it is assumed that the requested heat is provided by trigeneration and partially by supplementary natural gas, whereas electricity and cooling are derived only by the trigeneration process. Input data for the chocolate manufacturing are firstly mass allocated among different co-products—cocoa liquor (21.3%), cocoa butter (43.9%) and cocoa powder (34.8%)—and then through energy content approach (MP&F 2020 ).

2.2.3 Packaging materials and end of life

On market, chocolate bars are wrapped by several possible materials, considering the requested properties to guarantee intact aroma. As shown in Table 7 , four different packaging solutions are evaluated. An option is a sole polypropylene (PP) packaging; another is an aluminium film packed with a fibre-based material: respectively a cardboard (Recanati et al. 2018 ) and a kraft paper.

The end of life of the different packaging materials is defined according to the Italian scenario in 2018, as reported in Table 8 .

3 Results and discussion

The LCA provides practical key measures which allow an easy comparison among different possible conditions. Process hotspots are detected, so effective changes can be introduced for system optimization. In view of that, firstly, impacts due to cocoa farm and transport are presented to underline critical points of the main raw material in the chocolate supply chain. Then, the whole production process is considered to compare three chocolate types, owing to different requested ingredients. Finally, the production and the end-of-life treatment of packaging materials are also taken into account as addition causes common for every analyzed case.

3.1 Cocoa farm and transport

Cocoa farm is characterized by a relevantly high emission impact, in relation to other permanent fruit cultivars: low yield per hectare is the main reason in this regard. Indeed, the usable product is limited considering the elimination of husks, the weight lost during fermentation and sun-drying. Moreover, the increased demand in the last period has forced the production optimization through an intensive use of chemical substances. For every analyzed case, synthesis and usage of fertilizers are the main sources of environmental impacts. As Fig. 2 shows, Indonesia monoculture case represents the worst condition. The emission of NO into air and those of nitrate and phosphate into water, both due to N- and P-based component application, respectively contribute to more than 85% of AP (88.1%) and EP (88.5%). The direct and indirect emissions of N 2 O also cause 34.3% of the total GWP, whereas the fertilizer production adds another 38.9% to GWP and consumes 62.2% of the total energy (CED) requested by the cultivation phase. In the Ecuador case study, pesticides have a higher contribution: for instance, 23.3% of AP, 14.1% of EP and 35.9% of GWP in comparison with 2.5% of AP, 3% of EP and 12.3% of GWP in Indonesia monoculture system. Except for water consumption, Ghana shows the best performance in all the impact categories owing to the application of N-free fertilizers and the absence of diesel consumption in agricultural machinery. A possible optimization is the substitution of the agrochemicals with organic products. Since the cocoa production stage creates a large amount of solid waste due to husks (about the 67% of the fresh pod weight), these may become organic fertilizers. Moreover, cocoa residue could be also used for bioenergy production (Kamp and Østergård 2016 ).

Environmental impacts due to farm and transport of dried cocoa beans (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

As Fig. 2 shows, pollution due to the transport step is influenced by travelled distances, so Ghana scenario results to be the best solution. Among all the case studies, GWP, POCP and CED are the categories mainly affected by the transportation phase: from 10.8% for Indonesia monoculture system to 22.3% for Ecuador in the case of GWP; from 36.7% for Ghana to 52.3% for Indonesia agroforestry system in the case of POCP; and from 12.9% in Ghana to 24.1% in Indonesia agroforestry system in the case of CED.

As far as Abiotic Depletion is concerned, pesticide production results the most impacting process (above 75%) in terms of ADP, el, whereas fertilizer production contributes between 40.2% (Ghana) and 62.3% (Indonesia monoculture system) to ADP, ff.

3.2 Chocolate manufacturing

The environmental impacts caused by the production of 1 kg of chocolate are assessed and compared for dark, milk and white cases. The study evaluates the effects due to the production of ingredients (milk powder, sugar, cocoa liquor, powder and butter), energy and water consumption for final product refining. As in previous literature LCA studies (Konstantas et al. 2018 ; Vesce et al. 2016 ), Figs. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 and 10 show that cocoa derivatives and milk powder provide the major contributions. The first ones are widely influenced by the producer countries. Indeed farming requests an intensive use of agrochemicals and the bean transforming phase needs a high energetic consumption (Ntiamoah and Afrane 2008 ). The milk powder manufacturing also has an intensive energetic usage because of evaporation and drying steps (Finnegan et al. 2017 ). For instance, in Ecuador case study, AP impacts are mainly due to cocoa derivatives (96%) in dark chocolate, cocoa derivatives (19%) and milk powder (63%) in milk chocolate and cocoa butter (27.6%) and milk powder (65.1%) in white chocolate. Similar percentages are obtained for EP: analyzing Ghana as farmer country cocoa derivatives contributes for 91% in dark chocolate, while 76.3% is due to milk powder in white one. In accordance with literature (Büsser and Jungbluth 2009 ), the milk and white chocolates have the most relevant GWP impact: considering an average value between proposed situations, about 4 kg CO 2 eq. are obtained in comparison with 2 kg CO 2 eq. due to dark chocolate production. POCP and ADP, ff have quite similar results, as the milk powder present in milk and white chocolate compensates for the major amount of cocoa co-products in dark chocolate. On the contrary, ADP, el impacts result higher for dark chocolate since the contribution (per mass unit) of milk powder is lower, due to the relevant impact of pesticides applied during cocoa cultivation. Except for Ghana case study where a considerable amount of water is used by cocoa farming, the milk powder production requests about 70% of net water consumption in chocolate supply chain (Fig. 9 ), whereas the water use for property chocolate refining step is very low (Vesce et al. 2016 ). Similar considerations are valid for needed energy: indeed, only the milk powder manufacturing spends 46 MJ (around 66%) as Fig. 10 shows.

AP impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

EP impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

GWP impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

POCP impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

ADP, elements impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

ADP, fossil fuels impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

Water use impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

CED impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to mass allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

In general, as reported in Fig. 11 , dark chocolate shows a better performance in the categories where impacts deriving from milk powder production are predominant (i.e. EP, GWP, POCP ADP, ff, CED), whereas it overtakes milk and white chocolate as milk powder contribution decreases. Water use represents a separate case since the comparison is strongly influenced by the water consumption for cocoa cultivation in Ghana (Fig. 2 ). Moreover, milk and white chocolate present similar results since they contain the same amount of milk powder and similar amounts of cocoa co-products (Table 1 ). Therefore, even though the comparison among different chocolate types varies according to the considered environmental impact category, still dark chocolate globally shows the best environmental performance, followed by white chocolate and then milk chocolate.

Comparison of potential environmental impacts of 1 kg of dark, milk and white chocolate (average values among different producer countries)

3.3 Packaging production and end-of-life treatments

In chocolate supply chain, the main causes of pollution are the used raw materials: above all dairy and cocoa derivatives. Certainly, the careful choice of products with lower environmental impacts, resulting from a better management of their cultivation and processing, could improve system performances. An alternative is the substitution of some ingredients; for instance, the use of soy milk, instead of cow milk, could reduce the impacts up to 70–90% (Miah et al. 2018 ). However, this solution is not always possible because the replacement changes the characteristics of the final product, such as taste, nutrition values and physical appearance. For this reason, an easier reduction of impacts can be obtained focusing on packaging materials. Figure 12 presents the environmental impacts generated by the packaging production to wrap 1 kg of chocolate. The polypropylene (PP) layer results to be the least impacting material in all chosen impact categories. Two different combinations of an aluminium foil with a fibre-based material result more impacting than the PP case, mainly because of aluminium-based material production. Consequently, the aluminium layer plus cardboard is the most impacting solution in all categories: respectively, 0.0021 kg SO 2 eq. for AP, 0.0008 kg PO 4 3− eq. for EP, 0.4228 kg CO 2 eq. for GWP, 0.0012 kg NMVOC eq. for POCP, 1.70‧10 −6 kg Sb eq. for ADP, el, 4.1419 MJ for ADP, ff, 0.0035 m 3 for water use and 5.7136 MJ for energy consumption.

Environmental impacts due to production of packaging materials to wrap 1 kg chocolate

3.4 Sensitivity analysis

Mass allocation is usually suggested when allocation procedures cannot be avoided and no different physical relationships reflect the way in which the inputs and outputs are changed by quantitative variations in the products delivered by the system (IES 2019 ). Thus, mass allocation is applied in the first point to the cocoa co-products as defined in paragraph 2.2.2 . Since different allocation choices could strongly affect the results and owing to the common use of chocolate as energy food, allocation rules based on the cocoa co-product energy content are proposed for the sensitivity analysis. The caloric intakes for cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and cocoa powder are respectively equal to 648.3 kcal/100 g, 899.05 kcal/100 g and 469.6 kcal/100 g (MP&F 2020 ). As reported in Table 9 , this allocation choice leads to a higher allocation percentage for cocoa butter (56.7% instead of 43.9%) and to lower allocation percentages for cocoa liquor and cocoa powder (respectively 19.8% and 23.5% instead of 21.3% and 34.8%), proportionally affecting their environmental impacts. As shown in Figs. 13 and 14 for GWP category, the energy content allocation slightly rises the environmental impacts of both milk and white chocolate because of the increased impacts of cocoa butter. On the contrary, dark chocolate shows almost equal impacts as the presence of all three cocoa co-products balances the result variation. The change linked to cocoa butter also leads white chocolate to become more impacting than milk chocolate, since cocoa butter—the only cocoa co-product contained in white chocolate—is strongly unfavoured by the energy content allocation. Except for different percentage changes, the same behaviour occurs for all considered impact categories and indicators as shown by the results presented in the Supplementary Material .

GWP impacts of 1 kg dark, milk and white chocolate according to energy content allocation (Ecuador EC, Ghana GH, Indonesia monoculture system IDm, Indonesia agroforestry system IDa)

GWP impacts of 1 kg of dark, milk and white chocolate (average values among different producer countries)

Possible variation in the results could also be caused by different proportions among the mass of cocoa co-products obtained in chocolate manufacturing, as cocoa liquor contains both cocoa powder and cocoa butter in roughly equal proportion. Therefore, according to the existing proportion between cocoa butter and powder and maintaining the same overall mass for cocoa co-products (Table 6 ), different percentage variations in the output of cocoa liquor are applied to the manufacturing phase in the case of energy content allocation. However, as shown in Fig. 15 for GWP, the variation of the results is substantially negligible for all chocolate types in the case of energy content allocation, whereas no change is present in the case of mass allocation.

Sensitivity analysis for chocolate manufacturing - GWP

Finally, a comparison between two allocation methods is evaluated considering a functional unit of 1 kcal. The conversion of functional unit is computed according to average energy content for three chocolate types (Verna 2013 ): 4950 kcal/kg of dark chocolate, 5150 kcal/kg of milk chocolate and 5400 kcal/kg for white chocolate. Thus, looking at chocolate for its primary function of energy food, the application of an energy-based functional unit turns back to favour—in terms of GWP—white chocolate instead of milk chocolate in both the allocation rules applied (Fig. 16 ), as for the original case of 1 kg of product with mass allocation (Fig. 14 ).

GWP impacts of 1 kcal of dark, milk and white chocolate (average values among different producer countries)

However, regardless of the functional unit and the allocation rules applied, the qualitative comparison among three chocolate types remains similar.

4 Conclusion

The environmental impact analysis of the food supply chain is becoming a relevant topic due to its considerable consequences and, at the same time, higher attention of consumers to more sustainable product choice. In this context and owing to the continuous increase of cocoa demand, the comparison among dark, milk and white chocolate life cycle is proposed through LCA methodology from cradle to grave. Several possible situations are analyzed, considering different cocoa producer countries. Indeed, each zone and farming technique (monoculture or agroforestry system) has specific environmental impacts depending on requested inputs. The analysis shows that Ghana case study has minor consequences, due to lower use of fertilizers and pesticides and travelled distance between cocoa fields and factory; yet a higher water value is consumed. The raw material production, specifically cocoa co-products and milk powder, has the major influence in all considered categories. In addition, packaging material comparison is proposed analyzing different possible choices. The best solution is a single PP layer, whereas the commonly used aluminium foil with an external fibre-based pack has higher environmental impacts. According to the performed sensitivity analysis, the comparison between two applied allocation procedures—mass and energy content—does not show a remarkable difference, highlighting their equal validity in the application to chocolate LCA studies. In both cases, dark chocolate globally presents the best environmental performance, whereas the other two types have similar environmental impacts. These results are also qualitatively confirmed in the case of calories as functional units.

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Bianchi, F.R., Moreschi, L., Gallo, M. et al. Environmental analysis along the supply chain of dark, milk and white chocolate: a life cycle comparison. Int J Life Cycle Assess 26 , 807–821 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01817-6

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Chocolate Industry India: The Rise of Dark Chocolates

With this piece, we take a look at the Chocolate Industry India. The industry has been growing over the past few years and is still to realize its full potential in India. We take a look at the market size, growth drivers, the bummers, consumer trends, and finally, the rise of the dark chocolate in India. Hold on tight, lock your chocolate boxes if you’re on a diet and let’s just jump right in the post.

Chocolate Industry India: Market Size

The average chocolate consumption per capita in India is 100g to 200g per person. This is in stark contrast to Japan, Asia’s biggest chocolate consumer, at 2kg per person! And way out of line when compared to Europe, where the consumption is between 5kg to 9kg per person!

Although small, India is one of the fastest-growing markets for the impulsive and indulgent industry as chocolate confectionery with plenty of room for growth. The overall chocolate market currently pegged at approximately US$ 1,682 Million (2019) and slated to grow at 16% CAGR , the category is well-placed to sweeten the bitter after-taste of the slowdown.

Within the overall chocolate category, the share of premium and super-premium combined is a mere 11%. Talking about the spending, while the mass chocolate brands were at 15% of spends , premium brands comprised 43% of spends and the super-premium segment constituted over 40% of spends. The Pareto principle at play.

The total value of the Indian chocolate market is estimated to reach $3.3 billion by 2023.

A report by Mintel (2019) also emphasized the popularity of chocolates in India: ● Almost 3/5 (58%) Indians have consumed chocolate in the past 3 months ● 1/5 (21%) said they eat chocolate daily ● 3/5 (61%) said they are frequent users

Take a look at the image by the Economic times.

Growth drivers:

• The per-capita income of the Indian population has increased, thus increasing the disposable income in their hands
• Chocolates have become a part of casual snacking, unlike earlier when they were consumed just for special occasions
• The growing population of the younger generation is a major driving force behind the chocolate industries rapid growth
• Westernization and change in lifestyle also aid in the growth of the industry

Challenges faced:

• Inflationary pressure on prices of cocoa
• Continuous demand for product innovations
• Unexpected aberrations in rainfall have made cocoa more dependent on drip irrigation and more susceptible to waterlogging, in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Warmer maximum temperatures have reduced the area suitable for cocoa cultivation, in the plains of Tamil Nadu.

Consumer Trends:

• People travel abroad and bring chocolates back, which is helping in changing the perception of chocolate in the country
• A growing trend in premium as well as dark chocolate as people pay more attention to health and sugar reduction now. The demand for organic, vegan, sugar-free, and gluten-free in chocolates is growing. From July 2016 to June 2019, more than 3% of chocolate confectionery launches carried a no-added-sugar claim in India (Mintel 2019)
• India is still a relatively price-sensitive market. While Indian consumers love chocolate, they have become pickier. This means they are more willing to pay more for better quality chocolate
• There is also a growing trend in gifting chocolate in India
• Consumers have started consuming chocolate for emotional reasons, such as to boost their mood or to reward themselves, as well as for functional benefits like to boost energy levels
• Consumers have started moving towards smaller packs and bite-sized portions are gaining popularity in India which hints at increasing health-consciousness among Indian consumers who are trying to control portion size. Between time period August’17-July’18 and August’18-July’19, the percentage of individually wrapped chocolate launches doubled, increasing by 50.4% (Mintel 2019)

Dark Chocolate in Indian Market: The Rise

Though India is still predominately a milk chocolate market, the India Chocolate Market is showing a growing appetite for premium chocolate. It accounts for 9% of the total chocolate category in India. What’s more, the availability of dark chocolate brands such as Hershey’s, Lindt, Amul, Cadbury and Toblerone among others has led to the increased market penetration for dark chocolates.

The low sugar content in the dark chocolates is another reason for propelling the demand for dark chocolates, as consumers have become aware of high sugar intake and its link with chronic diseases like diabetes.

The pervasive health and wellness trends continue to influence the dark chocolate market in India. Manufacturers are now incorporating organic ingredients and natural sweeteners to make this category an attractive alternative of heavy sugar milk-based chocolates. Not to say that Milk-based Chocolates have not tried to enter this “Healthy chocolate space”. In fact, Cadbury earlier this year released their Cadbury Dairy Milk 30% less sugar , but unfortunately, A lot of consumers did not like the taste of the product. But we believe that the work is underway to come back with a stronger taste quotient.

Over the past few years, the demand for dried fruits, as well as blueberries and cranberries have witnessed steady growth. The ingredients are important for the manufacturers of a few of the most well-known dark chocolate brands in the country.

The health benefits associated with dark chocolate are high. Surprising? Yeah. Owing to the high percentage of cocoa present in it. It is known to reduce Blood pressure and lower the risk of a heart attack. Which is why the consumers are ready to pay a little premium for high-quality products. Leading to the growing penetration and consumption.

Realizing the value in going premium, home-grown brands like Amul had launched its Bitter chocolate in the ‘80s. Around 2010, the company recalibrated its focus on the back of an increasing acceptance of dark chocolates with higher cocoa ratio and launched its offerings in dark chocolate with many cocoa variants as well as new flavours like Sugar-free, Mystic Mocha, Green-T, and the now-popular single-origin chocolates range with cocoa originating from Venezuela, Peru, Tanzania, etc. By volumes, Amul claims to be the number one player in the dark chocolate category in India, according to R S Sodhi, managing director, GCMMF Ltd (Amul).

Competitive Landscape:

The market studied is highly fragmented.

Startups are yet to make a name for themselves in the category. The big and the old players remained in control of chocolate confectionery sales by the end of 2019.

Mondelez, Nestlé, Ferrero, Mars, Hershey, and Lindt & Sprüngli combined accounted for three-quarters of category value sales in 2019, with “others” accounting for the vast majority of the remainder.

Mondelez especially has been particularly successful in India. It remains in a dominant position in chocolate confectionery with a 65% share of India’s ₹12,090-crore ($1.73 billion) chocolate confectionery market, Dairy Milk accounts for 42% of the chocolate market.

The Author:

Anyway, that was it for this piece. Hope we were able to add value to you. The author of this piece is Ananya Garg , a student at NMIMS Mumbai. Drop a thank you to her when you can. Share this piece with your best friend (who loves chocolates) on  WhatsApp .

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Theo Chocolate- Doing Well by Doing Good

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This descriptive case was designed for use in an undergraduate course in social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, or business ethics. It summarizes the founding of Theo Chocolate, the first organic, Fair Trade certified, bean-to-bar chocolate company in the United States. Founder Joe Whinney created Theo Chocolate as a for-profit business to address social and environmental problems in the cocoa industry. The case provides information about the horrendous conditions some cocoa farmers face in West Africa and the negative environmental impacts of cocoa bean farming. The applied case was designed to help students understand the theoretical concept of shared value and to apply this concept to a new business. The case provides data for students to consider when assessing whether the company could be considered a firm committed to the principle of shared value in that it generated economic as well as societal value.

• Describe the conditions some cocoa bean farmers in West Africa face and the negative environmental impacts of cocoa bean farming.
• Identify the stakeholder groups with a vested interest in the success of Theo Chocolate.
• Analyze Theo’s competitive strategy.
• Explain what is meant by shared value and how it differs from corporate social responsibility.
• Analyze the evidence and assess whether or not the claims of creating shared value are supported. 

Case Study: Chocolate Manufacturing Company

Key data collection points for the chocolate manufacturing process.

In cocoa processing the drying process is critical.  To properly control this process, the monitoring of various oven temperature critical control points (CCPs) are required.  This supervision ensures the oven remains within the ideal temperature zone for proper drying.  If the process varies outside this zone, then action is required to divert the product off the production line.

Also monitored is the conveying pressure; the pressure it takes to convey the dry powder out of the sy stem.  This indicator is critically important to the control operator as too high of a pressure indicates the product is either too wet or the oven temperature s are too low.  Either result requires immediate action to maintain product quality.    

Similar to food and beverage process manufacturing environments, various components of the operation are tracked for uptime, raw material usage, total production numbers, and specific component 'state' times.  These variables are useful in total, as well as when viewed through a production shift and production start time lens. 

Using the Data Historian to Make Better Decisions

The application of collected data is key.  The Canary System has made it easy for both control operators and management to quickly visualize data that can be acted upon to ensure product quality and production uptime.  Operators can monitor critical control points in real time with the added context of historical data.  This allows the operators to make faster data-backed decisions.  Supervisors and quality control experts can see if the product went through all stages of the manufacturing process correctly.  They can also determine if the operator performed the proper functions in a timely manner.  The Canary software has been a tremendous help with the operators log.  It holds the operators to a high standard and aligns the entire team.

Problem solving is easy to diagnose with Canary trending applications and quickly highlights potential issues for busy operators.  For instance, if there are multiple, possibly minute, drops below a critical control point, operators may miss these occurrences, especially if they are pulled between multiple screens or physical locations of the plant.  Using Canary, total time below set points can be calculated and displayed in real time as well as correlated to particular batches of the process.  This important data feedback loop provides great value in not just maintaining product quality but also avoiding costly future downtime.   Canary has helped this organization to better understand when and why certain events happen which in turn has prompted the company to add measures to their process that has resulted in a more effective implementation.

Asset Monitoring and Comparison

A specific example of how Canary trending was used in asset monitoring can be found in the cocoa drying process.  Several large vessels are used to bring the mix to a specific level of moisture content.  A plant operator can use Canary to compare each vessel to the group, looking for different characteristics.  Doing so, they can determine problems with the heating of the vessel or whether it is pulling the same vacuum as the other vessels.  A user can’t see this looking at gauges or numbers, but with the overlaying of trend lines, it becomes readily apparent as each vessel should have a similar profile even though the data values may be different.  If the patterns deviate, then something is wrong.  Now that a potential problem has been identified, the reason must be determined.  

Is it a maintenance issue? Are the condensation lines blocked or not flowing correctly?  Is the proper amount of heat going to the process line?  The operator sometimes will not pick up on these causes because these problems develop over a relative long process.  Startup takes hours and the operators will miss these nuances without historical trend data.

The Canary software was used in the following ways: The software pointed at maintenance problems, vacuums aren’t as low as they should be.  Water temperatures were higher than they should be.  By looking at the Canary trends, these things jump right out at you.  Look at the profile. Overlay trend lines. Compare.  See profiles and blimps. These things manifest themselves in the product.  The color is not right. The moisture content is not right. The alkaline is off.

The Canary software answers the questions of why.  It has been a tremendous help to the end-user.  Future needs are to move data from the production floor to the front office.  They want to utilize the use of historical data in a spreadsheet and use the Canary Excel Add-in product .

When temperature shoots off the chart, maintenance knows they need to replace the sensor or change the transducer.  Canary software brings out a log of good things happening in the process.

One time on a Sunday afternoon at 1:30, engineers noticed oven control problems.  Operators were claiming that nothing of significance happened at that time but the Canary client applications were showing something different.  After pressing the operators, it was found out that they double charged a mixer adding 2 times the amount of solution needed.  The product was too wet but made it through the system.  They eventually were able to track the product and pull it from the system.

With the Canary system in place, users were able to better tune the vessels and reactor temperatures.  They determined the product was getting too hot and it was taking a lot of energy to cool the product. They were able to drop the product temperature and allow the process to naturally cool versus sending it through a cooling system.  They were running it hotter than it had to be and determined a more efficient way to get the results they were looking for.  They ended up self-regulating the system by trimming and putting temperature limits on the process.

The system integrator on this project commented that the Canary software has worked well wherever the product has been deployed in his applications.  He especially appreciates the file management services and customer care that Canary gives.

To learn how you can use the Canary software products to improve your process, contact us below.

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A Failed Crop Rattled the Chocolate Industry. Then Speculators Came.

After a production shortfall in West Africa, cocoa prices rose to $4,000 a metric ton from $2,500. Then they went nuts.

Credit... Carl Godfrey

Supported by

By J. Edward Moreno

• May 10, 2024

A failed crop, followed by a wave of financial speculation, put cocoa prices on a roller coaster this year, rattling an industry reliant on inexpensive crops and labor.

This is not how things normally go in the cocoa market. For much of the past decade, the price of cocoa in one key global benchmark hovered around $2,500 per metric ton. Last year, after poor harvests in West Africa, the price began to creep up — rising to $4,200 a ton by December, a threshold that hadn’t been crossed since the 1970s.

Then the financial speculators began to pile in — betting prices would rise further. They pushed the price above $6,000 a ton in February, $9,000 a ton in March and $11,000 a ton in mid-April. Since then, the price has swung wildly, falling nearly 30 percent in just two weeks before bouncing up again. By Thursday, the price was $8,699 a ton.

Large food companies have been raising prices and warning that they’ll have to continue to do so if cocoa doesn’t stabilize. Companies that use more pure cocoa — rather than the palm oil and other fillers that go into many candy bars — will be hit hardest, though some premium chocolate makers note that they’ve always paid much higher prices in order to compensate farmers fairly.

The situation doesn’t look as if it’s going to settle down soon. Here’s what you need to know.

What happened to the cocoa crop?

A combination of low rainfall, plant disease and aging trees led to a disappointing crop in Ivory Coast and Ghana in 2023. The two countries produce about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, so the shortage hit the global market hard. It continues: The International Cocoa Organization recently forecast that global production will trail demand by 374,000 tons this season, which ends in September, after a 74,000-ton shortfall last year.

There’s no quick fix for this. The trees take years to produce fruit, giving farmers little incentive to plant more since they don’t know what the price of the crop will be when they bear fruit. Some may prefer to use more of their land for growing rubber or mining gold.

But while the production shortfall underpinned the initial price gains, speculation from investors like hedge funds took things to another level.

“Yes, there’s fundamentals that trigger the move, but then these financial considerations add to it and compound to the situation.” said Judy Ganes, a commodities consultant. “It’s money driven.”

How is the global price of cocoa set?

Like any commodity, cocoa has many different prices.

In Ghana and Ivory Coast , the government sets a seasonal rate that cocoa farmers are paid, in an effort to protect them from volatility in global prices. After market prices spiked in April, the Ivory Coast’s agriculture ministry agreed to raise that rate for the rest of the season — but it is still far less than the increase in global commodity markets.

In other countries, farmers are paid market rates.

But big buyers, like Hershey and Mondelez, and commodity traders buy and sell cocoa on global exchanges, where they trade physical beans as well as futures contracts that can require them to take a delivery of beans at a future date.

It’s in the global exchanges that prices have become disconnected from the reality on the farms.

The global benchmark for cocoa is a futures contract traded on the Intercontinental Exchange — and a buyer of that contract is agreeing to a price for a metric ton of cocoa beans to be delivered to one of several ports in the Eastern United States.

One big factor behind the price spike this year is that those futures contracts are settled with physical delivery of the cocoa — which means traders who are selling the contracts need to keep large reserves of cocoa beans on hand. That can result in an upward spiral, as traders are forced to buy more cocoa in order to replenish their inventories.

The volume of trading can also affect how the price changes.

In January, the number of active cocoa contracts jumped 30 percent from the year before, data from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission show. But that trading volume fell sharply starting in April — as prices peaked — and the smaller number of trades resulted in big price swings in the past two weeks.

Though prices have come down from their highest point, they’re likely to stay elevated for some time, said Paul Joules, an analyst at Rabobank, “because of the systemic issues that are going to take a while to resolve.”

Carla Martin, a Harvard professor who studies the cocoa industry, said the broader market might look more efficient if farmers had more price-setting power based on their supply.

“There’s actually a ton of money in cocoa, it’s just getting captured in very specific nodes of the supply chain,” Ms. Martin said. “The market itself does not actually solve these kinds of problems, the problems get solved by people.”

What does this mean for chocolate bars?

Chocolate prices are mostly rising. When Hershey and Mondelez, which owns brands like Cadbury and Toblerone, reported earnings recently, the price swings were a big topic of conversation.

Mondelez said it raised its prices about 6 percent in the first three months of the year, and Hershey about 5 percent, and both said they would be willing to push prices up more if the cost of cocoa stayed high. Both companies said their profits had increased by double-digit percentages over the previous year as consumers continued buying their products despite rising prices.

Luca Zaramella, the chief financial officer of Mondelez, told analysts on April 30 that the market was “overreacting” and that it would very likely correct itself in the latter half of the year.

Still, he said, “it’s absolutely critical for us to get ready for potentially cocoa staying at these levels.” Mondelez could protect its profits, Mr. Zaramella said, by trying to secure large orders of cocoa during market downswings or reducing costs for other inputs, like ingredients.

Some “bean to bar” chocolate makers, which have always paid a premium for the cocoa they get from smaller farmers, say they’re having a different experience.

“The premium cocoa price never changed,” said Dan Maloney, who runs Sol Cacao, a chocolate business in the Bronx, with his two brothers. “It’s almost like the bulk price caught up with the premium price, but we were always paying premium.”

Mr. Maloney said he was already paying $9,000 to $12,000 for a ton of premium cocoa, which he obtains from farmers around the world, particularly in Latin America and Africa. Sol Cacao charges $8 for a 1.86-ounce bar, while a four-ounce Hershey bar is about $2.

Mr. Maloney said he charged those prices to ensure the quality of the product and ethical treatment of farmers in the industry, which has a history of exploiting children and enslaved people for labor .

“They market chocolate as candy,” Mr. Maloney said of large manufacturers. “We market it more as a luxury, something to savor, like a bottle of wine.”

Some cocoa farmers see buyers like Mr. Maloney as allies who protect them from the whims of the financial markets.

Gustavo Mindineros, a cocoa farmer who leads a co-op of producers in Tumaco, Colombia, said farmers tended to favor smaller buyers when production was low because they bought fewer beans at a higher price.

“The large company guarantees volume, but they don’t recognize quality,” Mr. Mindineros said. “Smaller buyers do recognize quality, and they pay a premium for it.”

J. Edward Moreno is a business reporter at The Times. More about J. Edward Moreno

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