Chocolate production in the food & beverage industry

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans. In the processing plant, the beans are first cleaned and then separated from their shells. The ‘cocoa nibs’ produced in this way are roasted, and then broken in special mills and finally ground down until a liquid cocoa mass is produced. The next step is to mix with other ingredients, as required. The small cocoa and sugar particles in the cocoa mass are processed into microscopic particles by steel rollers. During ‘conching’, which can take several hours, the chocolate mass is kneaded and stirred and thus “ventilated” so that the bitter-sour aromas can gradually escape. For an appealing look, the chocolate is tempered, i.e. heated, cooled and reheated: this gives it a gloss or matt or shimmering surface and good break resistance. Finally, the chocolate is poured into bars or moulds for other shapes, and packaged. In order to be able to guarantee a consistently high quality for the chocolate, very precise monitoring and management of the individual process steps is necessary.

KROHNE offers precisely tailored measuring devices for these tasks. Fast, extremely accurate and robust temperature sensors provide exact results for simple and demanding hygienic applications. Coriolis mass flowmeters offer the same robust accuracy and hygienic design. The EGM™ technology by KROHNE (Entrained Gas Management) allow the flowmeter to maintain operation over a wide range of gas fractions and complex flow conditions. FMCW radar level transmitters with a large selection of hygienic process connections enable reliable, continuous, non-contact level measurement even in hot process tanks. Capacitive level switches with a short immersion depth in the process, work unaffected by foam, condensate or deposits. All devices are EHEDG and 3-A certified and meet the requirements of FDA and EC1935 / 2004.