Process 15: Packagings is also important!
Hello my fellow chocolate lovers,
I am Takanori Chiwata, the chocolate engineer of COCONAMA CHOCOLATE.
Today’s topic is “the packaging of chocolate”.
Packaging of sweets are just adorable and exciting to look at!
Don’t you have that moment when you want to just keep your favourite sweets or candy wrappers to admire its beauty?
Sweet’s packagings are always cute and sometimes super chic, but they are not just about the designs.They actually have an important role to play.
First off, I think you often see chocolate bars wrapped in an aluminum foil. This is not just because of the nice shiny look of aluminum, but also so that the aluminum can block light from hitting chocolate! As in light, I am talking about UV light which oxidize oil.Once a phenomenon technically known as “auto-oxidation” gets triggered, any kind of lights can rapidly spoil and oxidize oil. Chocolates are mostly consisted of cacao butters. Although cacao butters are more resistant to oxidation, they are still oil so if they are continuously exposed to light, it can drop the quality of chocolate. It is the aluminum that blocks the light away from the chocolate. These aluminum foils had purposes to be used as chocolate wrappers, and this is applied to a bag of chips as well. The inner side of the bag is aluminum and this is to block the light from hitting chips. Cooking oils in your kitchen are probably in a clear bottle, but their flavours can last longer if you wrap them with aluminum foil too.
Our company’s nama chocolates are individually placed on a plastic tray and then sealed with a plastic wrapper. We get comments saying that we are “over-wrapping” our products, but there is a valid reason to this as well. If we don’t place it on a plastic tray, our nama chocolate known for its “melt-in-your-mouth” texture could get crushed. We place the chocolate on the tray in order to keep its soft texture. The plastic wrapper that seals this tray also has an important role to play. It is this plastic wrapper that allows the chocolate to stay moist for a long period of time by preventing the moisture to escape from the chocolate. On top of that, in a chocolate assortment box, this plastic wrapper prevents the flavours and scents of each chocolate from transferring to one another. We are not just over using plastics. Our packaging are designed so that it can present our chocolates at its best quality to our customers.
Of course, the taste of chocolate is important, but it may be interesting to think about the packaging that will be left after enjoying your chocolate.
Next time, we will be sharing about chocolate from a completely different angle. Don’t miss it!
With hopes that you will be able to encounter the perfect chocolate just for you,
Takanori Chiwata
