Chocolate Puffing Machine

Conching is one of the most important steps in chocolate manufacturing. Before being molded, the chocolate mass goes through a conching process for mixing, aeration, evaporation, homogenization, and size reduction. Conching is an intense mixing process in which the chocolate mass is kneaded by heavy reciprocating rollers or rotating blades. The heat generated by friction liquefies the mass, causing water, acetic acid, and other volatile substances to evaporate, while the shearing action helps to reduce the size of the solid particles and evenly coat them with cocoa butter.

Traditional grinding is a slow process that can take from several hours to several days. Extrusion can perform the same function in a shorter time. The quality of chocolate produced by fast grinding with an extruder is generally considered to be inferior to the fine chocolate processed by traditional slow grinding. On the other hand, extrusion grinding allows for effective heat treatment of the chocolate.