Chocolate confectionery

As a global whey and milk ingredients producer, LACTALIS Ingredients offers a wide assortment of ingredients suitable for chocolate application to provide all the solutions necessary for your dairy sourcing.

Market overview

Despite some economic uncertainty, global retail demand for chocolate confectionery is expected to continue to expand steadily over the next few years, driven by the demand in developed countries seeking greater quality products. The growth is particularly high Asia (Indonesia, India) and Middle East. Nevertheless, consumers also intend to eat less of it: they want more premium offerings and healthier chocolate treats.

Chocolate innovation – new shapes, flavours, formats, ingredients – is increasing. However, new product launches have been stable between 2016 and 2020, with 2020 marked by a slowdown in launches (Mintel GNPD). As consumers are looking for healthier solutions, sugar reduction will be the main challenge for the industry. Still, today’s consumers are more likely to reduce their consumption of sweetened products than to switch to sugar-reduced confectionery. Nonetheless, protein enrichment will be an excellent opportunity for chocolate manufacturers seeking to diversify their healthy chocolate offerings.

Clean label claims have become a must have during the last years, but ethical claims have also gained importance. They are now leading in chocolate category and are constantly increasing. Ethical labels satisfy consumers’ demand for sustainable trading and farming and other environmental sustainability issues. LACTALIS Ingredients is dedicated to meeting these societal demands and fulfilling its Corporate Social Responsibility commitments. In turn, our commitment to respecting the farms, workers, land and animals that are so critical to our high-quality products, help to answer your own customers’ calls for transparency and clean products.

Our quality ingredients for chocolate confectionery

Dairy ingredients are major components in milk and white chocolate manufacturing, as they strongly influence its properties. Chocolate manufacturers have precise expectations, particularly in terms of controlling rheological parameters while optimizing conching time and costs. LACTALIS Ingredients offers a broad range of products, including references specially designed to address the specific needs of chocolate production: optimised particle size and density, microbiological specifications, lipase-free ingredients, and more.

Our range of products includes references dedicated to the specific needs of production:

  • Whole milk powder for viscosity and yield stress reduction as well as for roundness and creamy taste.
  • Skimmed milk powder with optimised particle size and density for an improved rheology control and a pleasant milky flavour.
  • Concentrated butter with a high melting point to prevent fat blooming, along with developing creamy mouthfeel.
  • Lactose, whey powders and whey permeate as a competitive source of dairy solids.