Barry Callebaut partners with NotCo AI to explore new approaches to chocolate formulation

Barry Callebaut entered into a new partnership with NotCo AI to explore the use of artificial intelligence in chocolate recipe development, bringing together the chocolate maker’s century of manufacturing expertise with NotCo’s data-driven formulation platform. Announced on 18 November 2025, the agreement formed part of Barry Callebaut’s broader digitalization agenda and reflected the company’s efforts to test new tools for innovation amid rapidly shifting market conditions.

The collaboration aimed to investigate how AI could support the development of new chocolate formulations by drawing on Barry Callebaut’s global ingredient data, production capabilities, and supply chain infrastructure. NotCo AI, which positioned itself as the first foundational AI platform built for the consumer goods industry, brought a decade of proprietary food-property datasets to the partnership. Together, the two companies planned to explore whether AI-enhanced processes could support faster development cycles and more tailored solutions for customers.

Barry Callebaut described the project as an opportunity to evaluate AI’s potential role in recipe creation, texture and flavor development, and formulation for health and nutrition targets. The company said the partnership aligned with its long-term approach to innovation and customer service at a time when cocoa-price volatility, ingredient shortages, and climate pressure were reshaping expectations across the chocolate and confectionery sector.

Peter Feld, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said the agreement represented a step toward modernizing how the company approached product development. “This agreement marks an exciting step forward for Barry Callebaut and for our customers. It reflects our commitment to creating best customer experience by boosting innovation and speed to market. 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,” he said.

Feld added that unpredictable market dynamics had increased the need for responsive innovation. “With the pace of change across the industry and the cocoa market, our customers’ needs are evolving rapidly. 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,” he said.

The project sought to explore how digital tools could support scientists, chefs, and product developers in creating new chocolate concepts with greater precision. Barry Callebaut said the goal was not only to refine speed and formulation accuracy but also to evaluate whether AI could help improve consistency and reduce the risk of lengthy development cycles.

NotCo AI, which had previously worked with major food and beverage companies, said its technology was designed to support both experimental and commercial-scale formulation. The company’s platform, trained on ten years of data on food composition and functional behavior, aimed to model how ingredients interact, how they can be substituted, and how different combinations affect performance, taste, and texture.

Matias Muchnick, Co-Founder & CEO of NotCo AI, said the partnership combined complementary strengths from both organizations. “Our high fidelity data corpus collected for the past 10 years has become the most fundamental value proposition for the next generation of CPG and ingredient companies of the future. By integrating Barry Callebaut’s unparalleled chocolate knowledge with our general purpose approach platform, we’re creating a personalized and unique innovation engine that will set a new standard for the entire industry,” he said.

Barry Callebaut’s collaboration with NotCo took place as the chocolate sector faced increasing pressure to adapt to global supply-chain challenges. Rising cocoa costs and climate-related disruptions have led many manufacturers to evaluate reformulation strategies, reduce reliance on vulnerable crops, and invest more heavily in R&D. The company said using AI to augment development processes could help maintain product quality and consistency even as external conditions evolve.

NotCo AI has previously applied its platform to accelerate hundreds of product launches across categories, using its proprietary dataset to model ingredient functionality and behavior. For Barry Callebaut, the partnership offered an opportunity to assess whether such systems could be applied specifically to chocolate, an ingredient with complex sensory and formulation requirements.

The companies described the initiative as exploratory but said the long-term goal was to determine whether AI-assisted processes could support scalable innovation across global markets. Barry Callebaut said any advances achieved through the project would be used to enhance its broader offering for customers seeking new flavor experiences, nutritional profiles, or functional benefits.

The partnership formed part of the company’s multi-year digitalization strategy, which has included efforts to modernize operations and incorporate new tools across the value chain. Barry Callebaut said adopting new technologies was essential to maintaining its role as a key supplier to the food and beverage industry while addressing the pressures facing cocoa production.

By combining Barry Callebaut’s established capabilities with NotCo’s computational approach to food development, the partnership aimed to evaluate whether AI could help set new standards for efficiency, responsiveness, and product design in the chocolate sector.