Confectioners favoring healthier bars over chocolate, says Bosch

ConfectioneryNews.com caught up with Bosch at the ProSweets trade fair in Cologne, Germany, last week, where the technology firm was exhibiting its new continuous bar production line: ‘Contiline’.

Bosch: Customers want healthy bars ​

Peter Dressler, sales and marketing at Bosch, said: “Our experience is that chocolate consumption in our field, bar production, is going down because mostly our customers want to sell a healthy bar and chocolate is not really healthy. It means the chocolate enquires are going down.”​

He said that Bosch was getting a lot of interest in its bar productions lines from customers in Asia, but they were mainly looking to produce muesli and cereal bars.

He added: “Customers are looking for sugar-free chocolate or products without chocolate. These are our most important enquiries now.”​

However, he said that that bar production of chocolate confectionery was starting to pick up again in Europe after a decline in the last three years.

Contiline bar production​

Bosch was exhibiting its ‘Contiline’ production line at ProSweets. The production line is a continuous system to produce bars that includes cooking, mixing, forming, cooling, cutting, tempering and enrobing.

The line can produce products with two layers, such as a chocolate bar with a layer of noughurt and another with caramel.

It has a capacity to produce a minimum of 300 kilos per hour and a maximum of one metric ton per hour.

Cleaning and operation process​

Dessler said the machine was easily cleaned. “When the operators are cleaning or adjusting the equipment they don’t need any tools. This means we have a very quick release and easy access solution,”​ he said.

Asked how many people it took to operate the process, Dressler said: “Normally for the kitchen you have one person, then for the mixing and forming one, then for cutting and enrobing one. -- and for the packaging it’s another one.”​

He said that the line ran in a single motion, so confectionery makers could not buy one part of the process, such as a tempering machine, from another supplier. However, Dressler said that Bosch could incorporate ultrasonic cutting to the process through a selected partner.