How Barry Callebaut and NotCo AI are building an end-to-end AI hub for next-generation chocolate
The chocolate industry faces a perfect storm of unprecedented challenges. Climate pressure, ingredient shortages, and rising cocoa costs are forcing manufacturers to reformulate products and deploy substantial R&D budgets to address supply chain disruptions. With the pace of change across the industry and the cocoa market, customers' needs are evolving rapidly while the demand for taste and quality remains uncompromising. The industry needs a fundamental shift in its innovation approach to navigate these challenges successfully.
As the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa solutions, Barry Callebaut stands at the forefront of this transformation. With a century of chocolate-making expertise and global infrastructure spanning manufacturing, supply chain, and distribution, the company serves customers worldwide who depend on its innovation leadership to navigate these industry challenges. Rather than react to pressures, Barry Callebaut is proactively pioneering a new paradigm for how chocolate innovation happens.
Pioneering the chocolate industry's entry into the AI era through a strategic pilot
Barry Callebaut is partnering NotCo AI to create the first AI-powered integration in the food industry. By merging its deep chocolate expertise and global reach with NotCo AI's cutting-edge AI, the company is creating a personalized, end-to-end AI innovation hub. This pilot will explore how AI can enhance process efficiency, accelerate development cycles, and scale innovation efforts—from recipe development to manufacturing—building a new framework for chocolate innovation that is smarter, faster, more sustainable, and fully scalable.
'This agreement marks an exciting step forward for Barry Callebaut and for our customers. By combining our deep chocolate expertise and global reach with NotCo’s advanced AI capabilities, we’re aiming to unlock speed for breakthrough recipe solutions, from health-forward formulations to functional ingredients and Nutri-Score-friendly options.
This collaboration enables us to test how AI can enhance process efficiency and scale our innovation efforts to meet future demands and allows us to accelerate our ways of working to deliver the best possible customer experience'
- Peter Feld, CEO
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Barry Callebau
The pilot aims to explore the development of the next generation of chocolate, potentially setting a new standard for how food companies innovate. By testing AI-driven formulation processes, the collaboration promises richer chocolate solutions and seeks to accelerate the development process, improve hit rates,and digitally empower every scientist and chef to create with unprecedented speed and precision, delivering exceptional taste while advancing sustainability goals.
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Barry Callebaut Group is the world’s leading solutions provider of high-quality chocolate experiences across the full spectrum of chocolate, cocoa, cacao coatings and non-cocoa alternatives – from sourcing and processing cocoa beans to crafting premium chocolates, fillings and decorations. The Group operates more than 60 production facilities worldwide.
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