Fungi, bacteria and yeasts are the unsung heroes of chocolate production. Managing these little helpers better could keep the future for chocoholics sweet
IN THE fictional chocolate factory of Willy Wonka, small cheery folk called Oompa-Loompas do the hard labour of making chocolate, and are paid in cocoa beans. In real life, the chocolate workers are much, much smaller. Before cocoa beans can be dried, roasted and made into the good stuff, they must be fermented – and this job falls to a host of microbes.
The surprise is that it is largely left to chance which microscopic minions participate. Whereas fermentation in other foods tends to be controlled by adding just the right mix of microbes, in chocolate the process is still usually spontaneous. But leaving everything up to nature is risky. As global demand for chocolate grows, and supply is imperilled by ...
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