Reading University student creates 100% British chocolate bar

Food Security master’s student Maha Khan from the University of Reading has created the first chocolate bar made from British-grown cocoa since 1932.

Named the Reading 100 Chocolate Bar to mark the university’s centenary, the bar was made entirely from British-grown ingredients: cocoa beans, sugar and milk.

Khan harvested, fermented and processed the cocoa before producing the finished bar in the university’s Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences. “It has been amazing to follow the entire chocolate-making process, from pod to bean to bar, without leaving Reading,” she says.

The cocoa used for the Reading 100 Chocolate Bar was grown at the university’s International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, which houses more than 300 cocoa varieties and handles 97% of the world’s international movement of cocoa plants. The climate-controlled facility helps prevent the spread of pests and diseases between cocoa-growing regions and enables scientists to study and conserve different varieties.

The future of chocolate

“This British bar of chocolate highlights the precarious nature of our food supplies. Cocoa plants are very sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and climate change is already causing problems in countries that produce most of the world's cocoa,” says Khan (pictured).

“Protecting different varieties is vital if farmers need hardier plants that can cope with a changing climate. I hope this shows people just how much work goes into the chocolate we enjoy, and how important it is to protect cocoa farmers and communities around the world.”

The UK’s chocolate market is worth £10.4 billion, but relies entirely on imported cocoa, highlighting the importance of international trade for cocoa-producing countries, manufacturers and consumers. Professor Carol Wagstaff, director of AgriFood Futures at the university, says the project illustrates the importance of maintaining resilient global supply chains.

“The UK chocolate industry rests on a supply chain that starts thousands of miles away in the tropics of Africa, South America and Asia,” she says. “A resilient global market is crucial to the many smallholder farmers who underpin the industry and find themselves farming in some of the regions most exposed to risks from climate change.”

According to the university, the Reading 100 Chocolate Bar is the first chocolate made from cocoa grown in Britain since Rowntree’s produced a bar using cocoa in 1932 from a glasshouse-grown plant at its York headquarters. The chocolate was presented to Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, making it the only other known example of chocolate produced from UK-grown cocoa.

By Jane Wolfe, contributor