The chocolate of the future may come out of a bioreactor. A research team in Switzerland has just developed lab-grown chocolate for the first time. The laboratory at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) is full of various scientific instruments. In the lab, a brown mass is being shaken around inside a big, bulging plastic bag, while a constant hum is heard in the background. Next to it is a glass container in which more brown matter is being stirred around. "Here in the lab we are actually just imitating processes that happen in nature," says Regine Eibl, who teaches at the ZHAW, an institute of technology in Wädenswil. Prof. Eibl heads the Cell Culture Technology department and is part of the research team that has just developed lab-grown chocolate. Chocolate out of a tank The “chocolate” was the result of biotechnologists and food technologists from the Wädenswil institution getting together. At first, Eibl’s team, which spends most of its time growing cell...
