Project description
Single equipment for chocolate production
The chocolate and cocoa market is a highly evolving market but cocoa is still one of the products that goes through the greatest number of stages before consumption, and the quality of the finished product depends on the many steps and treatments it undergoes. The BAT project combines the chocolate processing steps into a single stage, as a replacement for the current production system which requires the sequential use of multiple machines. It starts from the cocoa beans, combining the functions of 3/5 different machines. With BAT, chocolate manufacturers will no longer be compelled to manage a whole set of expensive, bulky and energy-intensive machines. With a single piece of equipment they will be able to obtain the chocolate they need to manufacture the consumer-ready finished product.
Objective
Market needs always more quality products, that can assure safety and respect for the consumer. Our proposal is focused
on the chocolate chain transformation, starting from the very origin of the process, that is the cocoa bean. Only the ones able
to propose a final product (chocolate) properly processed during all the transformation phases will be able to assure a real
quality product. Actually, only large industrial groups can afford the cost of equipments able to process from the bean to the
chocolate: SMEs are totally cut off, while they represent over the 90% of the chocolate market producers, forced to use
chocolate drops or cocoa mass for their initial phase of production.
We propose an equipment combining the chocolate processing steps (pre-refining, first refining, separation, conching and
second refining) into a single stage, as a replacement for the current production system, which requires the sequential use of
multiple pieces of equipment.
With BAT, chocolate manufacturers will be able to obtain the chocolate they need to manufacture the consumer-ready
finished product. Furthermore, manufacturers will have full control over the whole production chain, thus ensuring both
quality and efficiency.
Market: the chocolate and cocoa market is a highly evolving market: chocolate consumption has risen in the world by 32% in
10 years and its turnover is destined to grow further
MARPI is a SME with a strong background in designing and manufacturing machines for the food industry: they will be
supported for the production and commercialization by MCM Massa, that is SME leader in the production of machinery for
the food sector, in particular for chocolate processing. They will make the production, using MARPI technology, and will
make available their wide national and international commercial network. The first market targets are the ones in which the
chocolate consumption is the most important: Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Japan and USA will follow
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineering
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical transitionsrevolutions
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
14100 ASTI
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.