Food Processing Technologies – The Chocolate journey from pod to bar

Chocolate results from a complex process that takes cocoa beans from the rainforest and turns them into something sweet and delicious. The process begins with drying the beans and grinding them into a paste called “cocoa mass.” This paste is heated to remove some of its moisture content. Next, this mixture is ground again and mixed with other ingredients like sugar and milk powder before forming into blocks or bars.

Cocoa bean drying

If you’re looking to dry your cocoa beans, there are a few options. You can dry them in the sun, which is quite popular in many countries. When drying cocoa beans in the sun, you should hang them from trees or other structures and ensure they’re not touching each other—this will allow for air circulation and help prevent mould growth.

A more modern approach uses a kiln designed explicitly for drying cocoa beans. These are often heated by gas or oil, but coal is sometimes used as an energy source.

Another way that’s becoming increasingly popular is using a drum dryer—circulating warm air over large drums filled with dried cocoa bean pods at high speeds (often 1.5 meters per second).

Pulverisation

Pulverisation is the process of breaking down a solid into a powder. This can be done in several ways, but it usually involves grinding the solid into smaller pieces with a grinder. The grinder can be stone-based (a stone mill), ball-shaped (a ball mill), or roller-based (a roller mill).

Cocoa mass production

Cocoa mass (also called chocolate liquor or cocoa paste) is the main ingredient in creating chocolate. Making cocoa mass involves removing the fat from cocoa beans and grinding them into powder. This can be done using a hydraulic press, but it’s often done by machine.

The resulting substance is a thick liquid with many uses for making different types of chocolate. It can also be used as an ingredient in other products like the hot cocoa mix, cake frosting and ice cream topping!

Cocoa powder production

Cocoa powder is made by pressing the cocoa mass. The cocoa mass is pressed to remove most of the cocoa butter, leaving behind a dry powder. Then, the remaining powder is sifted and graded for different uses.

Conching

Conching is a process that improves the texture of chocolate by mixing and grinding the chocolate. It can take up to 72 hours, but this is part of why it’s so important: it helps develop the flavour of chocolate. Conching machines are used to mix and grind the chocolate, which leads to more complex flavours being created as well as improved texture.

The most common type is an open-air conching machine because it allows airflow around the product being processed (i.e., your delicious treat). The other type is a closed system because it has no contact with air from outside sources; instead, everything stays inside, where you can watch your food get amazing!

Refining

Refining is the process of removing the remaining fat and sugar from the cocoa mass. The resulting powder is cocoa liquor, which is then dried to make cocoa butter.

The refining process consists of three steps: mixing, pressing and drying.

Tempering and moulding

Tempering chocolate is a process that involves heating and cooling chocolate to form a smooth, shiny appearance. Tempered chocolate has better gloss, snap and sheen than untempered or “bloomed” (underheated) chocolate. You can use tempered chocolate to make moulded decorations for cakes or other desserts and shape chocolate bars like truffles or candy-coated almonds.

Conclusion

The steps above are high-level, but to recap, chocolate is made using various technologies from cocoa beans, which are harvested, pre-cleaned and dried before being pulverised into cocoa mass. The mass is then refined by adding alkali to remove the fatty acids and produce cocoa butter, sugar and other components. The remaining solids are called chocolate liquor or Massa cacao. Tempering is a process that improves the quality of chocolate by giving it a shiny appearance and helping it to melt at body temperature; this reduces its sensitivity to heat fluctuations during storage. Moulding involves filling a mould with chocolate, which is then smoothed over using a spatula and left to set; this process can be carried out manually or using machinery such as automatic confectionery machines.

Food processing is an essential part of our lives. It helps us to get fresh food and also reduces the amount of waste we produce. There are many different types of food processing technologies which are used today. Still, some stand out from the rest because they have been around for so long or because they have been perfected over time by scientists and engineers who have studied them closely. These include pasteurisation, freezing, dehydration and freeze-drying, which are all processes that ensure food has a longer shelf life without compromising on taste or nutritional value.

Next time you pick up that bar, reflect on the chocolate journey.

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