Cocoa Processing Company Limited (CPC) in collaboration with the British Council (BC) and the Department of Nutrition and Food Science of the University of Ghana(UG), will outdoor a new sugar free chocolate 'ASPIRE' at the British Council auditorium next week Wednesday.

A statement issued in Accra yesterday said' ASPIRE' was born out of an industry-academia partnership between CPC and the Department of Nutrition and Food Science of the University of Ghana through the Africa Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme (AKTP), a British Council project aimed at bhdging the gap between industry and academia.

Genevieve Pawar, Marketing Manager, CPC, said the production of 'ASPIRE' was in line with CPC's goal to bring health benefits of cocoa to all categories of consumers.

"It is ideal for people who love chocolate but are conscious of their sugar consumption and those who aspire to better health. ASPIRE is to become an addition to the Golden Tree label," she said.

Frank Asante, Head, Research and Development, CPC, said that a lot of research and evaluation had gone into the production of 'ASPIRE' adding that "we are very confident therefore, that this new Golden Tree chocolate will meet the needs of the non­sugar eating public".

Moses Anibaba, Director, British Council, stated that the AKTP programme between CPC and University of Ghana was a pioneering and excellent example of how industry and academia in Ghana could work to improve competitiveness and productivity through better use of scientific knowledge, technology and skills.

"I am thrilled with the launch of 'ASPIRE on the Ghanaian and world market and proud of the efforts and collaboration in this initiative," he reiterated.

Dr Esther Sakyi- Dawson, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, university of Ghana and Academic Supervisor of the project said product development efforts at the univesity usually ended at the prototype stage and they were really excited about the opportunity given them to see a prototype to be scaled up to a stage where it would be launched.

She lauded the British Council's AKTP project, saying that it addressed the issue of academia providing an immediate workforce for the world market.

Source: Ghanaian Times