food Marketing - Technology 2/2023

Processing
Behind the Scenes of Your Favorite
Sweets: The Intricate Process to Create
Classic Desserts
Finding the Right OEM Partner: Six Production Trends to Consider in Chocolate Production
By Chris Sinutko
From candy to ice cream to cookies,
the process of creating many of your
favorite chocolate foods is more
intricate than you might imagine.
Beyond the perfect recipe, the
equipment to make the components
of a seemingly simple confection
needs to be specialized, calibrated and
maintained to precise specifications
for the product texture and taste to be
just right. Companies like SPX FLOW,
with a global team that has worked
in the food and beverage sector for
decades, works with manufacturers
and processors worldwide, whether to
maintain a classic recipe or innovate
something new.
It is amazing how many products
have a hand in helping to make
chocolate. Whether it’s consistency
in a product consumers already love
or brainstorming and testing new
ideas, dedicated, sophisticated and
knowledgeable equipment partners
can help.
Chocolate’s unique processes
have much to do with temperature
and mixing, requiring specialized
equipment honed for specific uses.
Here are six factors — and the
equipment that goes with them — that
help shape the chocolate-making
process.
1. Temperature
The heating and cooling of chocolate is
a significant determining factor in the
end product.
For example, the filling for a sandwich
cookie needs a specific cooling process
to ensure the taste customers love.
The scraped surface heat exchanger
(SSHE) is a crucial component of the
job. Likewise, bakery filling creams
and frostings, including the heavier
versions for cookies or lighter for
chocolate bars, nougat paste or
coverings, rely on SSHEs.
Even the type of chocolate itself,
whether white, dark, milk, etc., affects
the temperate needs. Chocolates with
a higher cacao content (>70%) require
high temperatures to mix the product
well.
The temperature needs of chocolate
are delicate and specialized. Keeping it
heated and cooled play a large role in
the consistency, which in many cases,
is what a brand has come to be known
for.
2. Blending
Temperature affects blending needs as
well. Cacao mass and liquid chocolate
are challenging media to agitate due
to their high viscosity, non-Newtonian
behavior and sensitivity to local
overheating.
Liquid chocolate is the base for
many favorites, including ice creams,
confectioneries, pastries, beverages
and more. Yet, the production needs
can be particular to the customer’s
needs. The chocolate end product and
ingredients like fat, oil, lecithin and
cacao require pumps, like those from
Waukesha Cherry-Burrell, Johnson
Pump, or APV, to facilitate the process.
Completely blended ingredients,
maintaining a truly homogeneous
mixture and good heat transfer are
essential for the quality of the end
product.
Traditionally, customers in the
chocolate processing industry use top
entry agitators or, even more often,
horizontal blenders consisting of
plough impellers or a combination with
helical ribbon impellers. Disadvantages
include extremely high power
consumption of the blenders has a
negative impact on the overall energy
balance of the process. Furthermore,
these units have an enormous space
requirement that leaves limited plant
floorspace for future expansions.
One solution to this problem is using a
vertical mixer, like the Stelzer Sigma.
It generates forced counterflow
24 food Marketing & Technology • April 2023