READING is now the birthplace of the first truly 100% British chocolate bar in nearly a century.
The University of Reading has created the first bar of chocolate using only ingredients grown and produced here in the UK.
The Reading 100 Chocolate bar is the first of its kind in nearly 100 years, when Rowntrees gifted a six-year-old Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) the only other bar of UK-grown chocolate ever made, making her the only person in history ever to eat one.
Maha Khan is the University of Reading food security master’s student who created the chocolate bar.
She harvested, fermented, and processed the Reading-grown cocoa, before making the exclusive chocolate in the University’s Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences.
While the UK’s chocolate market is worth £10.4 billion, it is entirely reliant on imported cocoa, highlighting the importance of internationally traded food to global farmers, UK consumers and the economy.
The British-grown cocoa was grown at the University of Reading’s International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, a unique collection of more than 300 types of cocoa plant, which handles 97% of the world’s international movement of cocoa plants.
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The climate-controlled centre in Berkshire is carefully managed to prevent the spread of pests and diseases between different cocoa-growing regions of the world, while also providing scientists with the opportunity to study the plants.
The creation of the British-grown chocolate bar showed the complex process required to turn the raw crop into a finished product.
Cocoa pods from the Centre’s collection are usually removed unused, but were instead used as the source of the beans for the new chocolate bar.
The pods are broken open and the beans removed, before they are spread out, dried and fermented in the sun, then roasted.
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Supported by food science experts in the University of Reading’s Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Maha crushed and ground the beans to a consistent cocoa powder.
She then combined it with British-grown sugar and milk to create a chocolate mix, which was then heated, shaped and formed into a ready-to-eat, entirely British chocolate bar.
Maha Khan said: “It has been amazing to follow the entire chocolate-making process, from pod to bean to bar, without leaving Reading.
“This British bar of chocolate highlights the precarious nature of our food supplies. Cocoa plants are very sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and climate change is already causing problems in countries that produce most of the world’s cocoa.
“Protecting different varieties is vital if farmers need hardier plants that can cope with a changing climate.
“I hope this shows people just how much work goes into the chocolate we enjoy, and how important it is to protect cocoa farmers and communities around the world.”
Professor Carol Wagstaff, director of AgriFood Futures at the University of Reading, said: “The UK chocolate industry rests on a supply chain that starts thousands of miles away in the tropics of Africa, South America and Asia.
“A resilient global market is crucial to the many smallholder farmers who underpin the industry and find themselves farming in some of the regions most exposed to risks from climate change, as well as to chocolate makers and chocolate lovers in the UK.
“While growing and buying local produce often makes sense for your health, and helps the economy and environment, it is not a universal rule.
“International trade in food can be a good thing, providing economic stability for communities whilst using natural energy resources for production, and we need to invest in research to keep threats at bay.”
