Tips for Chocolate Storage

When you’re buying wholesale chocolate, storing it correctly is more important than ever. Dealing with large amounts in a commercial setting carries a risk of heavy financial losses in terms of product and overheads, and a business may also need to keep its stocks for a long period of time without spoilage. Because of these reasons, proper storage conditions are essential.

Basic Conditions

As any chocolatier knows, there are several important components to a chocolate’s overall quality. These include the mouthfeel, flavour, scent and gloss of the product. Wholesale chocolate stored in improper conditions can change in any number of untoward ways: fluctuating temperature and humidity can lead to unsightly bloom on the surface of the chocolate, something that can certainly hurt your product’s reputation with connoisseurs. Chocolate is also able to absorb odours from its surroundings, so keeping it in the same place as strong-smelling substances can taint the palate and nose of your chocolate. Increases and decreases in temperature can also lead to partial thawing and re-freezing of the chocolate, disrupting the crystalline structure of the chocolate and leading to an undesired change in its mouthfeel.

Keeping your chocolate in cool, dry and stable conditions, free of direct sunlight and interfering odours, will help ensure that your wholesale chocolate can reach the next step in your supply chain in top condition.

Different Kinds of Chocolate

Whether traded domestically or wholesale, chocolate’s shelf life depends not only on its surroundings but on the state of the chocolate itself. Where at all possible, store your chocolate in bars, and bear in mind that the different proportions of fats, sugars and other solids mean that various forms of chocolate have different lifespans. Dark chocolate stored in bar form tends to last for approximately two years, while milk chocolate bars remain in saleable condition for around one year, and white chocolate bars have a shorter shelf life of around four months. As for truffles and other filled chocolates, these can’t usually be kept for longer than three to four months.

Refrigeration

It’s generally agreed that chocolate kept in the cool, dry conditions detailed above will reach the consumer in optimum conditions, but sometimes those conditions may not be possible. A warehouse in summer, for example, may be impossible to keep from temperature and humidity fluctuations. In such conditions, refrigeration is an option.

In order to safely refrigerate chocolate, first wrap it tightly in plastic and press all the air out of the packaging. Then refrigerate, and upon removing the chocolate, allow it to reach room temperature all the way through before unwrapping it. This way, you can protect the chocolate from the unsuitable humidity levels of the fridge and maintain the correct chemical balance and composition of your product.

Ultimately, as much as the topic has been studied, anyone who wants to trade in wholesale chocolate will have to make their own call. Seek expert advice wherever possible, but remember that you’ll need to decide yourself when to refrigerate or whether a certain area will be suitable for storage.