A Munich-based startup, Planet A Foods, is challenging the confectionery industry with ChoViva, a chocolate alternative made entirely from sunflower seeds. By fermenting and roasting the seeds, the company has created a product that mimics the taste and texture of conventional chocolate without using a single cocoa bean. This innovation addresses a critical issue: the declining availability of cocoa due to climate change and deforestation in West Africa.
How Sunflower Seeds Mimic Chocolate
The secret lies in the processing. Sara Marquart, chief technology officer and co-founder, explains that 80% of chocolate's flavor comes from fermentation, roasting, and conching—not from the cocoa bean itself. “If you apply this analogy to other ingredients, then you don’t actually need the cocoa bean at all,” she says. The company sources sunflower seeds from its factory in Pilsen, Czech Republic, and combines them with sugar and vegetable oil to create a concentrate.
Product developer Lukas Göldner demonstrates the process: ingredients are ground, rolled, and then placed in a conche—a slow-moving stirring machine—to liquefy. The mixture is tempered to ensure the fat crystallizes properly, resulting in a glossy, crisp bar. In a blind taste test, a reporter could not distinguish ChoViva from traditional milk chocolate. “A perfect snap,” Göldner says, after tasting a freshly cooled bar.
Addressing Cocoa's Environmental and Supply Chain Risks
Planet A Foods was founded in 2021 by siblings Sara and Maximilian Marquart. The startup employs researchers and food industry professionals from 18 countries, including France, Italy, Switzerland, Uruguay, Taiwan, and Mexico, with English as the working language. The company’s mission is to reduce the environmental footprint of chocolate production, which typically relies on global supply chains from Ghana and Ivory Coast—countries that account for 80% of the world’s cocoa. These regions face deforestation, climate instability, and pest outbreaks.
“There’s a scenario in which, by around 2050, 50% of the cocoa supply will be lost,” Sara Marquart warns. “Cocoa comes mostly from two countries, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Rainforest is cleared to plant cocoa, and these regions are extremely fragile and severely affected by climate change.” By using regional sunflower seeds, ChoViva shortens transportation distances and lowers carbon emissions, offering a more sustainable alternative.
The startup has won several business awards and is now scaling production. ChoViva is already being used in some European confectionery products, though the company faces challenges in convincing consumers and manufacturers to switch from traditional chocolate. The product’s success could help diversify Europe’s food supply chains, a topic of growing interest as the EU explores tools to reduce dependencies on single-source imports.
Broader Implications for European Food Tech
Planet A Foods is part of a wave of European startups using biotechnology and local ingredients to create sustainable alternatives to imported goods. Similar efforts are underway in Spain, where talent abounds but funding lags, and in France, where AI adoption is reshaping leadership strategies. The chocolate alternative market is still niche, but ChoViva’s early success suggests consumer appetite for eco-friendly sweets is growing.
As Europe grapples with climate change and supply chain vulnerabilities, innovations like ChoViva offer a glimpse of a more resilient food system. For now, the startup’s lab in Munich continues to refine recipes, with the goal of making sustainable chocolate the norm rather than the exception.
