Maintaining Hygiene in Chocolate Manufacturing
From dark to milk chocolate, maintaining a hygienic environment is crucial in the chocolate industry. Ensuring proper cleaning of pipelines and equipment reduces contamination risks, guarantees product quality, and safeguards consumer health.
But cleaning chocolate transfer pipelines comes with unique challenges. In this post, we’ll explore why traditional cleaning methods often fall short and how liquid product recovery (‘pigging’) technology provides an efficient, cost-effective solution
Why Water and Chocolate Don’t Mix
Clean-in-place (CIP) systems are commonly used in food and beverage manufacturing. These systems use water, chemicals, and resources to sanitise pipes and equipment.
However, water is problematic for chocolate manufacturing. When chocolate, especially high-cocoa-content varieties, comes into contact with water, it can seize, thicken, or solidify. This renders the product unusable, leading to waste and added costs.
Traditional Cleaning Methods: Time-Consuming and Wasteful
Chocolate lines don’t need cleaning as frequently as food and beverage lines. That’s because chocolate products contain virtually no moisture meaning they’re less susceptible to bacterial degradation.
However, they still need cleaning. Chocolate manufacturers often rely on labour-intensive cleaning methods, such as:
- Manual Cleaning: Dismantling and manually scraping equipment, which is tedious and time-consuming.
- Using Butter or Oil: Flushing residual chocolate with butter or oil, followed by additional cleaning stages. While effective, this process wastes costly ingredients.
- Using the Next Product: Some manufacturers push residual product out of the pipes with the next batch. This practice results in high product loss and contamination risks.
Using Butter, Oil and the Next Product to Clean the Pipelines
For manufacturers using butter and oil, the process typically begins with oil being flushed through the pipeline to remove residual chocolate. This is often followed by a butter flush to remove the oil. While oil can sometimes be reused, butter usually cannot. Given the high cost of these ingredients, this method is far from ideal. After all, which chocolate manufacturer wants to waste expensive resources like butter and oil?
Alternatively, some manufacturers use the mass from the next production batch to clean the line. This involves pushing out the residual chocolate with fresh product before starting the new production run. While this approach avoids butter or oil usage, it leads to significant product loss and waste, which can be extremely costly.
With volatile cocoa prices and unpredictable market demand, such inefficiencies are becoming increasingly unsustainable. Many chocolate companies have already reported declining sales and reduced revenue due to rising material costs and wasted product.
The Solution: Pigging Technology for Chocolate Pipelines
To combat these challenges, many manufacturers are implementing hygienic and sanitary pigging systems to recover up to 99.5% of product from pipelines, reducing waste and saving costs.
How Pigging Works:
A flexible projectile or “pig” is sent through the pipeline (usually automatically), recovering residual chocolate by pushing it to a destination filler or tank. This ensures maximum product recovery and minimal residue.
High-Performance HPS Pipeline Pigs
HPS pigs are specifically designed to meet the demands of chocolate manufacturing. They:
- Are made from durable, food-grade silicone.
- Navigate bends while maintaining full pipe contact.
- Withstand high temperatures without degradation.
By clearing pipelines so efficiently, HPS pigging systems enable faster changeovers and multiple formulations, eliminating the need for manual cleaning or dismantling equipment.
Pigging Reduces the Use of Oil, Butter and Saves Product
For chocolate manufacturers facing rising ingredient costs and increasing pressure to minimise waste, pigging offers a highly effective solution. By recovering product, reducing waste, and improving efficiency, pigging systems for chocolate deliver multiple advantages:
- Saves Product: Recovers nearly all residual chocolate, reducing waste.
- Cuts Costs: Eliminates the need for butter and oil, saving on expensive ingredients.
- Improves Efficiency: Reduces cleaning times and speeds up changeovers.
- Prevents Solidification: Clears pipelines frequently to avoid product freezing or solidifying.
Special Considerations for Chocolate Production
Chocolate pipelines are often water-jacketed to maintain the correct temperature. If equipment fails or chocolate is left stationary, it can solidify or burn, becoming unusable.
HPS custom pigging systems prevent these issues by enabling frequent pipe clearing, ensuring product doesn’t settle or freeze. This enhances lot control and keeps production running smoothly.
Find Out More
HPS is the world’s leading specialist in Liquid Product Recovery and Pipeline Pigging Solutions for manufacturers, producers and processors of chocolate, confectionery and other food and beverages.
Our pigging systems are in wide use in many chocolate manufacturing plants throughout the world. This includes companies such as Nestle, Ghirardelli, Mondelez, The Hershey Company, Log House Foods, Mars Chocolate and many others.