Melt-free chocolate nibbles & clean-label caramel: Barry Callebaut's latest innovations

The company introduced heat tolerant chocolate 'Choc37.9' and Belgian caramel chocolate 'Caramel Doré' at the ISM trade fair in Cologne earlier this month.

Barry Callebaut's global marketing director Bas Smit told ConfectioneryNews the launches were intended to resurrect struggling volume growth in the chocolate category.

Choc37.9- Mess-free chocolate​

Choc37.9 is a base chocolate that can be used to create on-the-go chocolate nibbles with inclusions such as nuts and fruits.

Barry Callebaut says the chocolate has a melting temperate 4° higher than normal chocolate and greater than the body’s temperature.

"This is a concept platform that our customers can tomorrow launch because they don’t need to be concerned that the chocolate will melt in the pack when it's in a purse or when it's in the car,”​ said Smit.

The marketing chief said temperature-tolerant chocolate nibbles could be a high-margin, premium convenience product for confectioners that could contain as few as 10 nibbles per pack.

"This is unlocking a new usage occasion,“ ​he said. “You can imagine that the big global brands and small brands can all of a sudden be in the aisles of petrol stations and cashiers at the supermarkets for impulse satisfaction."​

Caramel Doré chocolate​

The world’s top cocoa processor also introduced Belgian caramel chocolate ‘Caramel Doré, at the ISM trade fair.

The caramel chocolate is created purely through caramelizing milk during chocolate processing and contains no added flavorants.

"If you were eating in the past 'caramel chocolate' it was flavored with caramel. So it was probably a milk chocolate and a caramel flavor from a flavor house added to it. Here’s there's not a flavor added to it - it's the purity of the cocoa bean,” ​said Smit.

He said Caramel Doré could help manufacturers introduce high-end caramel products with salt and other inclusions.