Hiring chillers during the chocolate manufacturing process can help ensure chocolate production deadlines are met, and that the chocolate produced is of the required, saleable quality.

Keeping chocolate and manufacturing machinery cool

In hot weather, and during other high-demand/increased production periods throughout the year, rented chillers can help to keep chocolate at the right cooling/setting and storage temperatures. (Leased water chillers are attached to air handling units in chocolate production plants so that air conditioning is created on a large scale.)

More on how it works: Leased chilling machines help to keep chocolate-making machinery at a specific temperature, so that it does not overheat. This in turn means chocolate processing is also at the required specific temperature.

Thanks to rented chillers, the chocolate manufacturing process in hot weather is speeded up – to combat the slower chocolate cooling/setting time that too hot natural temperatures can create – and productivity continues as normal.

As well as chocolate melting in hot weather, it can also ‘lose its shine’ when it resets; shapes, patterns and detailed designs can be much less precise; it can also break and crumble too quickly after sale; and the underlayer of chocolate coating on bars and sweets can ‘flake’ into fillings. Also, moving chocolate from one temperature extreme to another during storage – such as from a refrigerator on a hot day – can result in an oily texture and other forms of discolouration.

UK chocolate buyers can be very discerning, and expect their chocolate to be ‘just so’; they will immediately notice if their favourite chocolate is nothing less than perfect.

Most chocolate manufacturers world-wide have installed chiller systems at their manufacturing plants but they also need to consider whether they have an appropriate contingency plan in place should the unthinkable happen: if the production plant experiences an unusually hot spell of weather, production quality and quantity can suddenly jeopardised.

Hiring chillers during these periods allows chocolate manufacturers to keep production on track, and to continue to compete in what is one of the most competitive industries in the world.

But it is not only during summer and unexpected hot spells throughout the year that rented chillers can prove a godsend…

Chocolate ‘seasons’

Chocolate bars, fudge and truffles, etc., sell all year round, and established chocolate manufacturers are experienced in planning and handling production to meet this demand; but manufacturing levels need to be considerably stepped-up to meet the British public’s insatiable demand for milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and even gourmet chocolate at times such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day etc.

Chocolate manufacture is an eight step process which takes the cacao beans from their initial state through to making cocoa butter and finally moulding, cooling and storage of the final product itself (usually at 15 to 17 °C or 59 to 63 °F, with a relative humidity of less than 50 per cent). Each stage is an exact science with conditions being controlled throughout. All the hard work and care involved during the first steps of the chocolate production process can be undone if the cooling/setting and storage steps are not handled perfectly; this is where hired chillers prove invaluable: the maintaining of required cooling/setting and storage temperatures is assured.

Contingency plans

Specialist portable chiller rental companies are experienced in formulating contingency plans for chocolate manufacturers large and small. Site surveys are carried out where plans can be agreed relating to the delivery and setting-up of portable rented chiller units at chocolate production plants during the aforementioned ‘risk’ periods, during high production seasons, and also to safeguard the site from an installed chiller system failure.

A slow chocolate setting process can equate to less profit. Chiller rental, as part of a contingency plan, is a reliable and affordable safeguard against that happening.