When concocting a typical chocolate bar, it’s standard practice for farmers and food companies to discard most of the edible cacao fruit in favor of the bean found inside, which serves as the base for chocolate.
This waste contributes to the chocolate industry’s massive climate footprint. One company, Blue Stripes, is trying to address this by creating snacks out of the rest of the cacao fruit normally tossed aside.
Caroline Saunders, freelance writer at Grist, profiled Blue Stripes founder Oded Brenner, who was known as a modern-day Willy Wonka when he was the face of the Max Brenner chain of chocolate restaurants in the aughts. We speak to Saunders about whether Brenner’s approach offers a sustainable climate solution to the world’s chocolate problem.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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