Chocolate lovers will soon enjoy a new flavour, jackfruit. Interestingly, a major farm co-operative is working on a chocolate product based on vacuum-fried jackfruit bits. Though, a horticulture research institute is focusing on producing chocolate using jackfruit seed powder as an ingredient.
The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd, that produces chocolates at its factory in Puttur of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, is now doing trials on a chocolate product with vacuum-fried jackfruit bits as an ingredient. SR Satish Chandra, President of Campco, mentioned that the jackfruit-based bar chocolate, which is in the trial stage now, will have around 15 per cent of the tropical fruit. Some people, who tasted the trial product, felt that the percentage of jackfruit content in the chocolate could be increased even further.
According to Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director of Campco, “The product is based on an in-house formulation. Tests are on to check the shelf-life of this jackfruit-based bar chocolate.”
MR Dinesh, Director of the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), said that the institute has developed technology to prepare chocolate from jackfruit seed powder. Also, entrepreneurs can enter into a memorandum of understanding with IIHR for commercial use of the technology.
He stated that there is a need for more processing industries for jackfruit cultivation to become profitable. These processing industries should have their own products. IIHR has come out with these standardised products on jackfruit.
Adding to it, IIHR’s incubation centre can support the young entrepreneurs for six months, if they come forward to use its technologies on jackfruit products.
