An enrober is a machine used in the confectionery

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 industry to coat a food item with a coating medium, typically chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

. Foods coated by enrobers include nuts, ice cream, toffee and other miscellaneous candy

Candy

Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...

 items, biscuits and cookies. Enrobing is essentially a mechanized form of hand-dipping. Enrobing with chocolate extends the shelf life

Shelf life

Shelf life is the length of time that food, drink, medicine, chemicals, and many other perishable items are given before they are considered unsuitable for sale, use, or consumption...

of a confection.

History

Coating a confection in chocolate was traditionally a slow manual process involving dipping the pieces into melted chocolate by hand. As demand for chocolate-coated sweets grew, it became impractical or impossible to employ enough people to dip sweets into melted chocolate to keep up with required production capacity. To fulfill this need for high-capacity chocolate coating, the enrober machine was invented in France in 1903, brought to the United States, and perfected to perform the work of at least twenty people.

Process

The process of enrobing involves placing the items on the enrober's feed band, which may consist of a wire mesh or containers in which the confection to be enrobed are placed, with each container having drain holes to recover excess chocolate. The enrober maintains the coating medium at a controlled constant temperature and pumps the medium into a flow pan. The medium flows from the flow pan in a continuous curtain and bottoming bed that the food items pass through, completely coating them. After being coated, a wire mesh conveyor belt transports the confection to a cooling stage.

External links

Video of a chocolate enrober in operation