Dive Brief:
- Barry Callebaut AG, the global leader in bulk chocolate, has devised a type of chocolate that won't melt as fast as traditional chocolate while withstanding temperatures 4 degrees higher than most of its chocolate counterparts. Other companies, including Nestle SA, Hershey Co., and Mondelez International Inc., have been working on similar products as well.
- The main benefit for chocolate that doesn't melt as fast is the product's ability to withstand the higher temperatures of some hotter regions, where the candy industry could uncover billions in potential profits.
- The development has taken decades, and since 1970, more than 90 patents for more durable chocolate were filed. One of chocolate manufacturers' main issues has been to not just create chocolate that melts more slowly, but rather create durable chocolate that also still tastes and feels like it. Another issue was the quick thickening of this type of chocolate, which prevented it from being pumped through the factory pipelines and molded into its designated shape.
Dive Insight:
Innovation has long been a strategy to entice customers to buy more of a particular product or brand, whether that be for a long established company or a new company trying to break into the market with a fresh food or beverage idea. Earlier this month, Hormel Foods Corp. announced the launch of three new product lines and a subsequent goal to generate $3 billion in new product sales between 2000 and 2016.
Losing the classic chocolate flavors and textures consumers love in their candy could be a huge detriment to food companies' ability to actually sell this type of chocolate on the market, so those were potentially major problems Barry Callebaut and others have contended with over the years.