A method of preventing, inhibiting or mitigating bloom in a filled chocolate product

A method of preventing, inhibiting or mitigating bloom in a filled chocolate product, the filled chocolate product comprising a chocolate shell comprising a chocolate composition and a center filling comprising fat, the center filling being partly or fully enclosed by the chocolate shell to obtain a center-filled chocolate shell, the method comprising:

• a) an inline heating step comprising at least one of heating the chocolate shell at a temperature of at least 25° C., heating the center-filled chocolate shell at a temperature of at least 25° C., and heating the filled chocolate product at a temperature of at least 25° C.;
• and at least one of
• b) a shell cooling step comprising cooling the chocolate shell at a temperature below 20° C.;
• c) a filling cooling step comprising cooling the center-filled chocolate shell at a temperature below 20° C.;
• and
• d) a final cooling step comprising cooling the filled chocolate product at a temperature below 20° C.;
• wherein the inline heating step is comprised in at least one of steps b)-d) or occurs between steps b) and c) or between steps c) and d).

A system for preventing, inhibiting or mitigating bloom in a filled chocolate product, the system comprising

• a) a filled chocolate product comprising a chocolate shell and a center filling comprising fat, the center filling being partly or fully enclosed by the chocolate shell to generate a center-filled chocolate shell,
• b) heating means for inline heating of at least one of the chocolate shell, the center-filled chocolate shell, and the filled chocolate product at a temperature of at least 25° C.,
• c) cooling means for cooling at least one of the chocolate shell, the center-filled chocolate shell, and the filled chocolate product at a temperature below 20° C.;
• wherein the heating means occur between the cooling means.