Energy-efficient humidity control for confectionery production
For quality candy, humidity matters
Confectionery manufacturing is highly sensitive to moisture, affecting everything from raw ingredients to final packaging. The product’s texture, stickiness, softness, color, and overall quality, are all affected by excessive and fluctuating humidity during the production process, causing products to lose textural integrity, quality, and experience a shorter shelf life.
Excessive humidity affects all types of confectionery, from hard candy, sugar drops, and jellies to chocolate, cookies, and popcorn. This degradation of quality happens because confectionery products are hygroscopic, which means they absorb moisture. When moisture from the air combines with sugar, it results in a decline in both texture and appearance.
Uncontrolled humidity in the candy processing facilities may lead to the spread of bacteria and mold growth, as well as excessive energy consumption. Condensation prevents drying at low temperatures, which results in increased energy consumption.
What you risk with uncontrolled humidity is driving your energy costs higher, turning your soft candy hard, or your crispy coatings soft.
With uncontrolled humidity you risk:
- Sugar or fat bloom in the production of chocolate
- Uneven coating and clumping
- Condensation which can cause stickiness during production
- Mold and bacteria growth in your facility
- Increased costs due to process complications and wasted products
- Excessive energy consumption
“We’ve got a significant productivity boost, in addition to energy savings amounting to around five million kWh annually. The quality of our chocolate lenses improved because the colors are better when chocolate lenses are dried and polished with dehumidified air instead of heated air. So, the product has gained added value on top of a huge energy savings.”
Kent Egsgaard, Facility Manager
Carletti
Different requirements for different confectionery products
Not all confectionery products reach their optimal quality in the same conditions. During production, storage, and transportation, ambient conditions and humidity levels affect each type of confectionery product in different and unique ways.
Too high relative humidity risks making hard candy, toffee, jellies, and gummies soft and sticky. Marshmallows and nougats are sensitive to the production environment, and their product structure and texture are at risk if the humidity is not optimal. For coated candies, such as dragées and pan work, there is a risk of the coated surface cracking if the ambient conditions are not right, while crispy cookies risk softening.
Securing stable and consistent relative humidity at the optimal level in the confectionery manufacturing process is essential to ensure each product's shape, structure, and color. And that it stays crispy, soft, hard, or smooth, from the factory to the candy-loving consumer.
Optimal relative humidity for confectionery products
- Relative humidity below 50% RH or over 60% RH can cause sugar bloom.
- Hard candy: Below 35% RH for ideal conditions.
- Cookies: 30% RH to 40% RH is ideal.
- Toffee: Below 35% RH is ideal.
- Jellies and gummies: 30% RH to 40% RH for ideal conditions.
- Marshmallows and nougats: Around 50% RH during production.
- Dragées and pan work: Around 50% RH during production.
The advantages of desiccant dehumidification for premium candy
Manufacturing quality confectionery requires precise indoor climate control. That’s why dehumidification is crucial in every stage of the confectionery manufacturing process, from silo to storage. It helps prevent sticking in silos, pipes, and packaging and enhances the quality, appearance, and shelf life of finished products.
- Yield the highest quality candy and confectionery.
- Maintain ingredient integrity to ensure consistent, final product.
- Shortens the drying time for gelatine candy, popcorn, and similar products.
- Eliminates clumping and sticking of ingredients during transport and storage.
- Optimizes shelf life and minimizes product waste.
- Munters’ desiccant rotor technology enables up to 30% lower energy consumption.
Our sustainable, energy-smart desiccant dehumidifiers will help you maintain full production speed and optimize throughput at every production step, with less production scrap and waste.
Humidity control for confectionery manufacturing...
1. Transport, unloading & silo storage
Maintain low humidity levels all year round to retain ingredient quality and consistency, and stop ingredient clumping and sticking in the silo and piping—helping you avoid lost time and scrapped ingredients due to mold.
2. Pneumatic transport
Create optimized humidity levels for a pneumatic transport system and prevent clogging and flow limitations, which causes quality issues—ultimately keeping your production process up and running with less waste.
3. Coating machine
Coating processes require low moisture levels for optimal results. Our solutions offer year-round precision and easy adjustments for consistent high-quality confectionery, reduced drying times, and less waste.
...ensures perfect confectionery products and longer shelf life
4. Drying tunnel
Prevent products from becoming sticky by blanketing your drying tunnel with dry air to improve humidity levels for consistent results and improved quality. In addition, you can lower the drying air temperature to improve quality further, reduce energy usage, and lower post-cooling temperatures.
5. Cooling tunnel
Optimize your cooling tunnel’s efficiency by maintaining low dew points and preventing condensation or frost on the coils (for a wide range of coil-temperature settings). This helps ensure that products consistently come out in their ideal conditions quicker and more efficiently.
6. Packaging
Ensure optimal environmental conditions during the packaging for fresh, high-quality products that also feature a longer shelf life. Regardless of ambient air conditions, our solutions provide consistent low temperatures and humidity levels.
7. Storage
Confidently keep humidity levels low when storing products with minimal cooling to prevent reduced product quality. For cold storage, eliminate frost buildup on coils, freezer doors, walls, and products by lowering the moisture levels in the freezer—reducing energy consumption while maintaining precise control.
Learn how to optimize each confectionery process step today!
Highlighted products
Munters ICA desiccant dehumidifier
For large confectionery manufacturing facilities, the Munters ICA desiccant dehumidifier is the solution to moisture and condensation issues. This highly customizable system is available in many sizes and configurations that can be engineered to meet your needs.
The ICA offers energy-efficient humidity control and features double metal walls and a no-through metal design to prevent condensation. It can be integrated with your existing HVAC system and configured to include cooling capabilities.
The HCD Series for precise moisture control
The HCD stand-alone dehumidifiers provide reliable humidity control in confectionery processing lines where moisture control is critical.
Reduce moisture in the air to low levels with Munters HCD desiccant dehumidifiers with extended functionality through HCD Plus modules. Versatile and energy efficient, the HCD provides reliable, cost-effective humidity control in manufacturing, storage and commercial spaces and process airstreams.
Products - Confectionary
Learn more about optimizing your confectionery manufacturing
Brochure: Make irresistible confectionery
Humidity control is critical in the processing of confectionery products that are manufactured with hygroscopic materials sensitive to high moisture levels. Munters offers air treatment solutions to reduce the effects of moisture in the transport of raw materials, throughout the production process, and in the packaging and storing of confectionery products.
Read brochure
White paper: Optimizing confectionery production with dehumidification
By leveraging advanced dehumidification technologies, manufacturers can ensure consistent product quality, streamline operations, and comply with regulatory requirements. Effective humidity management not only improves energy efficiency but also contributes to sustainability and business success.
Download the white paper
Webinar: Every cocoa bean counts
With the increase of cocoa bean prices and other confectionery ingredients, evaluating whether your process and storage facilities are up to the task is critical. Minimizing production waste due to poor humidity control is more important than ever. Are production and storage losses affecting the prices you pass on to your customers? Join our on-demand confectionery webinar, where Martin Ginty, Market Intelligence Manager for Food Production at Munters, will discuss the importance of maintaining an optimal indoor climate during ingredient storage.
View the webinar on-demand
Service Agreement to maintain uninterrupted operation
Confectionery manufacturing can be anything but predictable. That’s why we offer Munters Service Agreement to ensure proactive, preventive maintenance, helping you to maintain uninterrupted operation with minimal disruption. With planned, regular maintenance of your industrial dehumidification system, your production line will run smoothly, ensure high-quality products, while minimizing energy consumption.
Frequently Asked Questions about confectionery manufacturing
Because confectionery products are highly sensitive to moisture, excess humidity can cause these products to absorb water. This results in products that are sticky or grainy; sugar blooms developing on chocolate, soft cookies, and softened candies/sweets. Sugar is hygroscopic, and it sucks in moisture from the air when humidity is high. Sugars can then crystallize improperly, and flavors can degrade in this situation.
Yes. Many confectionery processes require low humidity levels to properly dry. If the air is too humid, coatings dry slowly or not at all (resulting in sticky or uneven coatings). With precision humidity control, you can adjust the humidity to ideal levels for each product. This results in less waste from defective products, lower energy usage, and improved uniformity and yield.
To preserve freshness and maximize shelf life, a cool and dry environment is ideal for packaging and storage. If there’s high humidity during packaging, products can degrade or experience microbial growth. Humidity control ensures product quality is maintained and prevents sticking in production, wrapping, and packaging - extending the shelf life of finished products - helping you avoid scrapped ingredients or wasted product.
When exposed to higher levels of humidity during transport or silo storage, ingredients such as sugar, flour, and gelatin can clump and spoil when exposed to humidity. Precision humidity control enables you to eliminate clumping to allow ingredients to flow freely, helping to avoid material blockages, prevent inventory loss, and stop mold growth. In other words, controlling humidity ensures smooth transport of ingredients with less downtime.
Munters offers tailored humidity control solutions that are designed specifically to address the needs of any confectionery facility - whether you’re making chocolate, gummies, cookies, or popcorn. We work closely with you through a complimentary site assessment to design a dehumidification system that fits your process. Through decades of experience in the food industry, our expertise and experience are ready to help you improve product quality, reduce waste, and save energy, ensuring that your confectioneries are irresistible.