At ECEFast we work with the food manufacturing industries to produce custom made thermocouples for use in a wide range of production stages. These including dairy, confectionary and chocolate manufacturing.
During the chocolate manufacturing process, there are several stages at which the temperature needs to be measured and controlled.
Stage 1: Bean Roasting
Usually needs to occur between 124C and 130C but not higher than 140C in order to preserve the flavour of the beans.
Stage 2: Roasting and Grinding Nibs
After roasting the nibs, they are ground for approximately 72-96 hours. In the beginning of this stage, the machine is warmed manually but once started the friction of the grinding will maintain the temperature on it’s own, usually between 49C and 54C.
Stage 3: Conching
Metal rollers or mixers grind or knead the mixture to refine and blend it. The friction created during this process, turns it into and maintains the mixture in a liquid state. Temperature at this stage needs to be maintained at around 80C for dark chocolate and 55C for milk chocolate.
Stage 4: Tempering
A cooling tunnel is used to take the chocolate from ambient air temperature down to between 7C and 13C and then back up to ambient air temperature.
Without high quality instrumentation to ensure these temperatures are always measured accurately, quality of products and wastage become a major issue for manufacturers.
Contact us today to find out more about how we can provide the best solution for your temperature monitoring requirements.