The manufacture of chocolate and confectionary owes as much to art as it does science with commercial production representing the union of traditional handcraft with large scale industry.
Confectionery and Chocolate Engineering: Principles and Applications draws on over 40 years of Professor Ferenc Mohos' inside experience to reveal how the scientific principles of food engineering can be applied to this unique industry.
"Confectionery is usually associated with handicraft instead of engineering and it's true that while production has been dominated by large scale industry for nearly a century, the attractiveness of confectionery is due to the coexistence of handicraft and engineering," said Mohos. "Traditional literature focuses on technology, yet this book takes a different approach. Building on the scientific background of chemical engineering it offers a theoretical approach to the practical aspects of the confectionery and chocolate industry."
Confectionery and Chocolate Engineering: Principles and Applications is the only title to examine the unit operations of confectionery and chocolate manufacture by applying the principles of food engineering, making it ideal for food engineers, technologists in research and industry, as well as students on food and chemical engineering courses.
Chapters not only cover the wider principles of food engineering, but also explore the physical, chemical and microbiological properties of the industries' diverse raw materials and end products such as milk products, eggs, gelatin and vegetable material.
Confectionery and Chocolate Engineering: Principles and Applications aims to characterise the unit operations of confectionery manufacture to open up new possibilities for improving efficiency of operations, the use of new materials, and new applications for traditional raw materials.
"Altogether I've spent half a century in this field, working on product development, production, quality control, purchasing and trading," concludes Mohos. "These tasks, related mainly to sugar confectionery and chocolate, convinced me that a uniform attitude and scientific approach is essential for understanding the wide ranging topics of chocolate and confectionery."