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Modernising cocoa processing: Inside Cargill’s York facility
Post by Admin on Friday, Jul 17, 2026 0 comments | 0 TightSlaps

FoodBev Media’s Rafaela Sousa visited Cargill’s cocoa processing facility in York, UK, to see how the company is combining the city’s long chocolate-making heritage with automation, digital monitoring and artificial intelligence

York’s association with cocoa stretches back more than two centuries. The city’s chocolate story began with Mary Tuke, who opened a grocery shop selling cocoa drinks in the 18th century, before names including Kit Kat and Terry’s helped establish York as one of the UK’s best-known chocolate-producing cities.

 

Today, that history continues at Cargill’s cocoa processing facility, where cocoa beans are cleaned, separated, roasted and ground into cocoa liquor for use by chocolate manufacturers in the UK and elsewhere.

The nibs move into the roasting stage, where closely controlled temperatures are used to develop their flavour. They then pass through a series of grinding stages, gradually changing from a solid material into liquid cocoa liquor.

 

Some of the liquor produced in York is supplied to Cargill’s chocolate facility in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. There, it is combined with ingredients including cocoa butter, sugar and, depending on the recipe, dairy components to produce bulk dark, milk and white chocolate.

The York plant does not produce finished chocolate bars. Instead, it carries out the early processing stages that turn imported cocoa beans into the dark, intensely flavoured ingredient at the heart of chocolate production.
Cargill has invested more than £20 million across its UK cocoa and chocolate operations since FY18, including new equipment, automated systems and digital quality controls. Sam Thompson, director of plant management at Cargill, described York as one of the company’s most modern cocoa processing facilities.
From cocoa bean to liquor
Cocoa beans for Cargill’s UK operations arrive at the Port of Liverpool before being transported to York
The first half of the production process focuses on preparing the beans. They pass through several cleaning stages designed to remove unwanted material before being cracked open.
The shells are then separated from the cocoa nibs, which form the central part of the bean used for further processing.A factory operated by a small team
Despite the scale of the equipment inside the facility, the main production process can be overseen by a relatively small operating team.
“Between two and three operators can run this factory, no problem,” Thompson said. “We have three technicians as well to work with the operators in case there is an electrical fault or something the operator can’t solve.”
The factory is divided into two principal production areas. One covers the stages from whole bean to cocoa nib, while the other takes the nibs through roasting and grinding to produce cocoa liquor.
Thompson explained that employees operate on the two sides of the factory, with technicians available to provide additional support when faults arise that the operators cannot resolve themselves.

One of the newest additions to the York facility is an artificial intelligence-supported camera system used during the bean-cleaning and separation stages.

 

Near-infrared cameras inspect material as it moves through the line, helping to distinguish cocoa beans from material that should be removed.

 

“The cameras make sure that everything we’re sending forward is clean beans,” Thompson explained. “That feeds back to our operators, so if there is anything going forward that we don’t want, they can adjust the settings.”

The cameras currently provide information to the production team, allowing operators to alter the process settings when unwanted material is detected.
However, Thompson said the company ultimately intends to feed the camera data into the plant’s control system, allowing adjustments to be made automatically in response to what the technology detects.
The information could also be incorporated into Cargill’s performance reporting, helping the team examine how much material met the required specifications and identify potential improvements.
Thompson described the AI application as a new development within Cargill’s cocoa network and said the company intended to expand its use into other areas of the York facility. 
“Cocoa beans for Cargill’s UK operations arrive at the Port of Liverpool before being transported to York
The first half of the production process focuses on preparing the beans. They pass through several cleaning stages designed to remove unwanted material before being cracked open.
The shells are then separated from the cocoa nibs, which form the central part of the bean used for further processing.

The nibs move into the roasting stage, where closely controlled temperatures are used to develop their flavour. They then pass through a series of grinding stages, gradually changing from a solid material into liquid cocoa liquor.

Some of the liquor produced in York is supplied to Cargill’s chocolate facility in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. There, it is combined with ingredients including cocoa butter, sugar and, depending on the recipe, dairy components to produce bulk dark, milk and white chocolate.

Despite the scale of the equipment inside the facility, the main production process can be overseen by a relatively small operating team.

 

“Between two and three operators can run this factory, no problem,” Thompson said. “We have three technicians as well to work with the operators in case there is an electrical fault or something the operator can’t solve.”

The factory is divided into two principal production areas. One covers the stages from whole bean to cocoa nib, while the other takes the nibs through roasting and grinding to produce cocoa liquor.
Thompson explained that employees operate on the two sides of the factory, with technicians available to provide additional support when faults arise that the operators cannot resolve themselves.

One of the newest additions to the York facility is an artificial intelligence-supported camera system used during the bean-cleaning and separation stages.

Near-infrared cameras inspect material as it moves through the line, helping to distinguish cocoa beans from material that should be removed.
 

“The cameras make sure that everything we’re sending forward is clean beans,” Thompson explained. “That feeds back to our operators, so if there is anything going forward that we don’t want, they can adjust the settings.”

The cameras currently provide information to the production team, allowing operators to alter the process settings when unwanted material is detected.
However, Thompson said the company ultimately intends to feed the camera data into the plant’s control system, allowing adjustments to be made automatically in response to what the technology detects.
 

The information could also be incorporated into Cargill’s performance reporting, helping the team examine how much material met the required specifications and identify potential improvements.

Thompson described the AI application as a new development within Cargill’s cocoa network and said the company intended to expand its use into other areas of the York facility. 
 

We’re going to utilise all the technology we can to try and make it more efficient, have better quality and deliver a better product for our customers,” he added.

 
 Maintaining quality through automation
For cocoa processors, production efficiency cannot come at the expense of quality.
Small changes during cleaning, roasting or grinding can affect the characteristics of the cocoa liquor and, ultimately, the flavour and texture of the finished chocolate.
 

At York, controlled roasting temperatures help develop the cocoa’s flavour, while digital monitoring supports greater consistency throughout production.

 

This is particularly relevant during a period of volatility in the cocoa market, when manufacturers are placing greater emphasis on operational reliability and making effective use of available raw materials. 

 

Emiel van Dijk, senior vice president and managing director of Cargill’s cocoa and chocolate business in Europe and West Africa, said maintaining supplies to customers had been one of the company’s major priorities during the recent disruption.

“During all the supply disruption, we have continued to serve our customers, and that was definitely not a given,” he commented. 
York’s next chocolate chapter
 

At the end of the visit, the group was invited to taste the cocoa liquor produced at the facility.  

Although it smelled recognisably like chocolate, its flavour was much stronger and more dry and bitter than a finished confectionery product.

“This is 100% cocoa,” Van Dijk stated.
The tasting offered a simple reminder that the material leaving York remains an ingredient. It still needs to be combined with other ingredients and processed further before becoming the smooth, sweet chocolate familiar to consumers.
The visit showed how Cargill is integrating automation and AI into established cocoa-processing operations to improve efficiency and quality control. As the technology is expanded across the York site, it will play a growing role in how the company monitors production, responds to issues and maintains consistent output.
 

 

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