| Summary: | Cleaning of surfaces in contact with chocolate is necessary in chocolate manufacturing to ensure high production quality. This research was carried out to study the removal behaviour of solid dark chocolate from three surface materials; stainless steel 316, polycarbonate and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). In order to understand the crystallization behaviour and its relationship with the chocolate rheology, a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) was used to characterize the polymorphs, while a rheometer was used to study the rheological behaviour of chocolate. The polymorphism was found to be influenced by the tempering and cooling processes, with no dependency on the surface material if cooling is properly controlled. Crystallisation can also be studied from the rheological data. Micromanipulation technique and texture analyser were then used to determine the ease of removal of a solid chocolate layer from the surfaces. Finally, both removal behaviour and time to clean were identified using a flow cell cleaning rig with respect to a number of parameters. It was found that surface roughness of the three materials, crystallization and cleaning conditions affect the removal, behaviour of solid chocolate layer from those surfaces. Water alone did not produce a clean surface for all the materials used, thus chemical was added. The results from cleaning work and micromanipulation measurements were found to be comparable.
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