Coming soon to a confectioner near you: perfect chocolate. Mars, the sweets manufacturer, is to invest more than $10 million (£5 million) in an effort to decode the cocoa genome, part of a five-year project to be undertaken with the US Department of Agriculture and the computer company IBM.

The genome is the hereditary information of an organism encoded in its DNA. By analysing the 400 million or so parts that make up the seed of a cacao tree, researchers hope to find new ways to treat crop diseases and protect the world's chocolate supply.

Perhaps more importantly, Mars hopes to track down the flavour genes, so that the taste can be improved to create a scientifically perfect sugar high.

Mars has declined to comment on whether the research will lead to genetically modified chocolate — Frankencocoa, as it would be labelled by critics — and whether it believes such products would be acceptable to consumers.

Instead, Mars is focusing on the benefits of genome research to cocoa farmers, about 70 per cent of whom are in West Africa. It is thought that black pod fungal diseases cost the farmers $700 million every year, a price they can hardly afford.

Ever since the Belgian molecular biologist Walter Fiers decoded a viral genome in 1976, the cost of genome research has been falling, resulting in the Human Genome Project, which began in 1990.

Since then scientists have started decoding the genomes of rice, putter fish, and E. coli bacteria — the latter of which is now being genetically modified to excrete “renewable petroleum” during fermentation.

The cocoa genome study will allow scientists to understand every aspect of a cacao tree's growth, from its ability to survive drought to what makes it susceptible to disease.

“Once we have the whole genome, [Mars] will be able to go in and look at all the genes they're interested in,” said Ray Schnell, a research geneticist with the USDA.

Ajay Royyuro, who is in charge of the IBM's Computational Biology Centre in New York, said that the cocoa genome project would capitalise on technological advances already made in examining the far more complicated human genome. “The genome revolution is underway,” he said.

Mars, which is based in Virginia, says that while the cocoa genome research is unlikely to result in larger cocoa crops, it could make possible higher yields — which in turn could allow farmers to devote some of their land to other crops, thus boosting their earnings.

Although the project is being funded privately by Mars — which makes M&Ms, Snickers and other popular brands — its findings will be made public, even to competitors.

Mars says that there will be more information to examine than any one company could do alone, and that the main reason for cracking the genome is to combat cacao tree pests and disease.

“For us the fact that Hershey [Mars's competitor] has similar information that every other chocolate company in the world has, that's fine,” said Howard-Yana Shapiro, Mars's global director of plant science.

Virtually no cocoa is grown in the US, but the USDA is taking an interest in the crop because domestically farmed food products, such as raisins and almonds, are used in chocolate manufacturing.

A growing taste

— Cocoa was grown by the Maya Indians in AD250-900. They fermented, roasted and ground the seeds before mixing it with water, chilli and corn to make a drink

— By 1400 the Aztec empire dominated much of Mesoamerica, and cocoa seeds began to be used as a currency for trading

— After their conquest of Mexico in 1521 the Spanish began to ship cocoa seeds home. Sweetened with sugar, (another expensive import), it remained a status symbol in Europe for 300 years

— The Industrial Revolution enabled mass production of chocolate and made it affordable widely

— Inventions like the cocoa press and conching machine made it possible by the mid-1800s to create a solid bar

— The first milk chocolate bar was made by Daniel Peters in Switzerland in 1875

— 600,000 tonnes of cocoa beans are used annually to meet world demand for chocolate

Sources: fieldmuseum.org ; wholefoodmarket.com

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