The Barry Callebaut Group, a leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, has revealed that it is offering fully sustainably sourced cocoa and vanilla across its North American ‘Better For You’ portfolio.
The brand’s ‘Better For You’ portfolio includes sugar solutions (sugar-free, reduced sugar, no sugar added), high-protein, dairy-free and organic solutions. All ‘Better For You’ products will be moving to COCOA HORIZONS verified through the Cocoa Horizons Foundation. Sustainable COCOA HORIZONS cocoa and chocolate products are sold by Barry Callebaut with a premium which is used to help improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities. These premiums go to the Cocoa Horizons Foundation to fund cocoa sustainability activities such as farmer coaching and support, cocoa and non-cocoa seedling distribution, and community development in a transparent and externally verified process. Additionally, the 'Better For You' products will be supporting sustainable vanilla production through a partnership with vanilla supplier Prova to implement the Sustainable Vanilla Charter.
“Barry Callebaut looks at the ‘Better For You’ segment through an end consumer lens,” says Laura Bergan, Director Barry Callebaut Brand. “Our innovation and portfolio are driven by consumer lifestyles and a result of closely monitoring market trends. Our sustainable portfolio goes beyond health benefits including the quality of the ingredients and the impact on the planet and farmers’ livelihood, which plays an important role for consumers. Being fully cocoa and vanilla sustainable adds to the value proposition of our products, which our customers can leverage in their product development and story-telling.”
Barry Callebaut’s Forever Chocolate initiatives look to make sustainable chocolate the norm. Forever Chocolate is built on four targets that Barry Callebaut expects to achieve by 2025 and that address the biggest sustainability challenges in the chocolate supply chain:
- Eradicate child labor from its supply chain
- Lift more than 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty
- Become carbon and forest positive
- Provide 100% sustainable ingredients in all its products
“This is an important step towards our goal of being completely sustainable by 2025,” says Bergan. “Barry Callebaut embraces its role as an industry leader by leading the sustainable cocoa and chocolate movement. We cannot achieve our ambitious goal by tomorrow and we cannot achieve it alone. Moving our ‘Better For You’ portfolio to fully sustainably cocoa and vanilla is an exciting step on our journey.”
