Challenge
Cocoa plants are threatened by climate change, and cocoa production is resource-intensive and expensive, which drives up cocoa prices and creates uncertainty around supply security. At the same time, traditional chocolate production involves the use of large amounts of palm oil, leading to jungle and deforestation in countries such as Malaysia, where palm trees are grown in plantations.

For 7-Eleven, a stable supply of chocolate at a consistent price is crucial for maintaining competitiveness in baked goods where chocolate is a key ingredient. At the same time, 7-Eleven has wanted to contribute to reducing deforestation by lowering the use of palm oil.

Solution
The people behind Endless Food come from the gourmet restaurants AMASS and ESSE and take a very hands-on, experimental approach to developing new ingredients. For them, it started as a fascination with what they could create from brewers’ spent grain—a by-product of the beer brewing process and, notably, a side stream available in very large quantities.

The first many experiments with the spent grain resulted in ingredients and foods that did not taste particularly good. They discovered, however, that with a specific processing method, spent grain could develop flavor notes reminiscent of cocoa. This encouraged them to pursue that direction with greater determination.

After numerous trials and further refinement, they developed what is now an alternative to cocoa-based chocolate, consisting of six different ingredients, with spent grain making up the largest proportion. Instead of palm oil, illipe oil and shea oil are used.

Endless Food approached 7-Eleven because of its production and distribution of a wide range of baked goods containing chocolate ingredients through 7-Eleven stores across the Nordic region. Today, Endless Food supplies 1–1.5 tons per month of this chocolate alternative to 7-Eleven, where it is used in the production of their cookies.

Impact
Endless Food has established a production setup with relatively low CAPEX. Compared to chocolate made from cocoa and palm oil, spent grain and the other ingredients are overall relatively inexpensive.

Combined with a positive environmental and climate impact—since spent grain is a side stream and the fats used do not affect the climate and environment to the same extent as palm oil—7-Eleven gains access to a chocolate alternative with a significantly smaller environmental footprint.