Holy cacao! There has just been an innovation in the world of chocolate

Someone has come up with a way to innovate chocolate, and while Fast Company writes about innovation and innovative ideas a lot, we are here to tell you that innovation has never sounded so downright delicious.

Barry Callebaut, whose signature chocolate is right up there with Valrhona as a favorite of pastry chefs around the world, has a new product that takes the entire cacao fruit and turns it into a new ingredient—one that creative chefs can use in everything from pastries and frozen desserts to juices, smoothies, and snacks, and a new treat called WholeFruit Chocolate.

Normally, when the cacao fruit is turned into delicious chocolate, about 70% of the cacao fruit is chucked in the trash. Since people are starting to pay a lot more attention to food waste, the folks at Barry Callebaut, the people who brought the world pink chocolate, took a new look at the process and came up with a new food that uses the entire cacao fruit from the beans to the peel, pulp, and juice.

This is great news considering wasted food is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases and the climate crisis. There’s not enough chocolate in the world to be able to eat your feelings about the fate of the planet (trust me, I’ve tried), but this new product might help a little. Plus, the WholeFruit chocolate contains less sugar, more fiber, and more protein than plain old chocolate, so it’s basically good for you (or at least better for you than shoveling four handfuls of fun-size candy bars in your mouth).

The new cacao product was developed at SnackFutures, Mondelez International’s innovation and venture hub, the world’s largest snacking company, so it makes sense that they are among the first to create the first whole cacao fruit snack products–a Smoothie Ball and a cacao fruit Jerky Strips, perfect for plant-based snacking.