A new study from the University of Surrey has revealed that biotechnology could be the missing ingredient in helping cocoa farmers get a better deal for their beans.
In the findings, published in the journal Supply Chain Management, the multi-university research team reveal that biomarkers can create "meta-barcodes", which are like biochemical fingerprints, an unchanging barcode extracted from the plant's DNA, providing a unique identifier of a plant that is also observed in its beans and subsequent chocolate products. The biomarker of cocoa beans used in chocolate manufacturing could accurately identify the farm, production facility or cooperative where a cocoa product came from.
To make this new process a reality, a controlled data set of biomarkers of registered locations is required for audit. The study goes on to explain that this missing piece—a biomarker database that identifies the origin of cocoa products, can be built by companies at an estimated cost of £5 per sample—around the cost of a box of chocolates.
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