Cocoa fermentations and chocolate flavours
November 8, 2022
During the first week of July, a team of researchers from the Future Food Beacon travelled down to London to join the Royal Society Summer Science festival. After a competitive selection process, endless organising, liaising with external suppliers, and sourcing cocoa saplings, we were finally ready to share our awesome research on cocoa fermentations with …
Improving farmer livelihoods through better cocoa bean fermentation
November 10, 2021
We can support small farmers by using science to understand cocoa bean fermentation, ensuring more consistent beans, and better incomes, write David Salt, David Gopaulchan, and Gabriel Castrillo Cocoa is a significant global commodity, generating income, export revenues, and employment for producing countries. Cocoa is grown across the equatorial belt, by some six million smallholder …
The problem of cadmium in cocoa beans
November 2, 2021
We are identifying ways to produce safer chocolate in order to help small-holder farmers, say David Salt, David Gopaulchan and Gabriel Castrillo Cadmium is a potentially toxic heavy metal that can be found in various foods through bioaccumulation from the soil. It occurs naturally in soils (from volcanic activity, forest fires, and rock weathering), but …
Resistance to disease in tropical crops – an interview with Professor Pathmanathan Umaharan
September 17, 2020
Professor Pathmanathan Umaharan (‘Uma’) is the Director of the Cocoa Research Centre, University of the West Indies. The Future Food Beacon is proud to welcome him as an Honorary Professor for the 2020/21 academic year. We spoke with Uma about his research career, current projects, and collaborations with Future Food. Tell me about your work. What is your research about? …
Researching fermentation in cocoa
March 11, 2020
Prof David Salt recently visited the Cocoa Research Centre in Trinidad & Tobago. In this post he reflects on our cocoa project in Colombia, and the work we are developing with the CRC. Our Colombian cocoa project began because we were interested in understanding the connections between the way fermentation works in cocoa beans and …
Doing science in the field: stories from our Colombian cocoa project
January 16, 2020
Dr Christopher Moore and Dr David Gopaulchan travelled to Colombia together in May 2019 to carry out scientific sampling of the cocoa fermentation process on different farms. David recently travelled back to Colombia for the second harvest, to conduct further sampling, in November and December 2019. We spoke to David and Chris about the experiences, …
Eating chocolate in the name of science!
November 20, 2019
The Future Food Beacon is currently leading a Prosperity Fund/Innovate UK funded project titled Controlling cocoa bean fermentation for enhanced chocolate flavour. The project draws together Colombian female farmers with a Nottingham bean-to-bar chocolate maker, Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates, working alongside our researchers to improve the flavour of chocolate. The first harvest of cocoa took place …
Meet the Beacon: Dr Christopher Moore
July 18, 2019
Dr Chris Moore is a geneticist and the Future Food Beacon technologist. He is based in Deep Seq, where he performs DNA sequencing and provides genomics support for Future Food researchers. Chris helps researchers to plan their sequencing projects, carries out the lab work and transfers data to bioinformaticians, such as Dr Michael Wilson, for …
Future Food Collaborators: Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates
July 9, 2019
Luisa Vicinanza-Bedi is a chocolate maker based in Sneinton Market in Nottingham. Her company, Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates, makes bean to bar chocolates using cocoa beans sourced directly from farmer’s around the world. Luisa is collaborating with the Future Food Beacon on an Innovate UK project in Colombia. Luisa spoke to Lexi Earl about her company, …
Meet the Beacon: Prof David Salt
June 19, 2019
Professor David E. Salt is the Director of the University of Nottingham’s multimillion pound Future Food Beacon of Excellence. Prof Salt left the UK after his PhD in 1990 to work as an academic in the US where he became a Full Professor at Purdue University in 2005, and where, from 2004 – 2007, he was the …
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