A profound question hangs in the air for any chocolate lover with an environmental conscience: Can we indulge in this beloved treat and still protect our planet? Thanks to a pioneering young team from southern Germany, the answer is now a resounding yes. Planet A Foods, a Munich-based start-up founded by siblings Sara and Maximilian Marquart, has invented a remarkable product named ChoViva—a sustainable “chocolate” crafted not from cocoa beans, but from fermented and roasted sunflower seeds. This innovation tackles one of the food industry’s most pressing dilemmas: the ecologically devastating and increasingly precarious supply chain for conventional chocolate. By utilizing locally sourced European ingredients like sunflower seeds, ChoViva dramatically shortens transportation routes and slashes the environmental footprint associated with our sweet tooth, presenting a viable path forward for the confectionery world.
The magic of ChoViva lies not in replicating the cocoa bean itself, but in masterfully recreating the processes that give chocolate its iconic flavour. As Chief Technology Officer Sara Marquart explains, a staggering 80% of chocolate’s complex aromas originate from post-harvest processing: fermentation, roasting, and the gentle, lengthy mixing known as conching. “The raw material itself is really just like a canvas, but the processing is the paint,” she says. By applying these precise techniques to sunflower seeds, her team has discovered they can unlock a remarkably familiar taste profile. In a blind taste test, the difference between ChoViva and traditional milk chocolate is virtually undetectable, delivering the same satisfying snap, melt-in-the-mouth texture, and rich flavour without a single cocoa bean. In their lab, Product Developer Lukas Göldner demonstrates the artisanal care involved, from grinding the seeds to tempering the mixture to achieve that perfect crystalline structure and glossy sheen.
The urgency driving this innovation is stark. The vast majority of the world’s cocoa comes from just two countries—Ghana and the Ivory Coast—where its cultivation is linked to deforestation and where climate change is wreaking havoc. Erratic rainfall, increased pests, and vulnerable monocultures threaten a potential loss of up to 50% of the global cocoa supply by 2050. “When we first started out, the industry kind of laughed at us,” Sara recalls. However, the severe cocoa crises of recent years have silenced the skeptics. Planet A Foods’ alternative not only offers supply chain resilience but also an astonishing ecological benefit: ChoViva boasts a 73.6% lower carbon footprint than conventional chocolate. If widely adopted in Germany alone, the company calculates an annual reduction of over 6 billion kilograms of CO2. For Sara, this environmental impact is the core mission: “Our product reduces CO2 emissions by 70 to 80%, and that’s what drives us.”
This vision is rapidly becoming a commercial reality across Europe. Planet A Foods, now employing a diverse international team, produces 10,000 tonnes of ChoViva annually and supplies it as a raw material to confectionery manufacturers, from beloved medium-sized chocolatiers to major multinational brands. A telling success story unfolds in France’s Alsace region at the Abtey Chocolaterie. Faced with the terrifying prospect of cocoa shortages, owner Anne-Catherine Wagner-Abtey embraced ChoViva, becoming the first French company to do so. After nine months of collaborative work to adapt the product to their existing machinery, the risk paid off spectacularly. The move opened new markets, allowed for year-round production beyond the traditional Christmas and Easter peaks, fueled growth to a €21 million turnover, and created new jobs—all while honouring her family’s 80-year legacy. “We’re going to keep making traditional chocolate, too,” she insists, “but it’s important for us to come up with alternatives that are delicious and indulgent, but also eco-friendly.”
The journey, however, extends from factory floors to supermarket shelves. Sara Marquart can often be found conducting quality checks, buying kilos of ChoViva-containing biscuits to ensure the product’s excellence is maintained for consumers. The economic argument is compelling, especially as cocoa prices have skyrocketed to three or four times their former levels, making ChoViva a cost-effective alternative. But for Sara and her team, the ultimate goal is far grander than market share or cost savings. It’s about legacy and continuity. “We want to make chocolate future-proof by producing it regionally and locally in Europe,” she states. Her vision is deeply personal, coloured by thoughts of her newborn daughter. She dreams of a world where her child, and generations to come, can still enjoy a chocolate Easter bunny—a treat that brings joy without costing the earth.
Ultimately, Planet A Foods represents more than a clever food-tech start-up; it symbolizes a necessary evolution in how we think about our favourite comforts. By decoupling the sensory joy of chocolate from the environmentally taxing and vulnerable cocoa bean, Sara Marquart and her team are reimagining a staple of global culture. They are proving that with ingenuity, respect for traditional food science, and a commitment to sustainability, we do not have to choose between indulgence and responsibility. In the humble sunflower seed, they have found a key to preserving chocolate’s future, ensuring that this simple pleasure can remain a part of our lives in a world that urgently needs balance. The story of ChoViva is, therefore, a narrative of hope—a demonstration that the path to a sustainable future can also be delicious.
