IN Brief:
- Bühler will present new cocoa, chocolate, bakery, wafer, and extrusion technologies at interpack 2026 in Düsseldorf.
- The launches include an inductive wafer baking oven designed to reduce energy consumption by up to 50%.
- The portfolio reflects pressure on confectionery and bakery producers to improve efficiency, flexibility, and energy performance.
Bühler is preparing a wide-ranging food processing technology showcase for interpack 2026, with new systems spanning cocoa nib roasting, chocolate compounds, spreads, coatings, bakery production, wafer baking, and extrusion.
The Swiss processing technology group will exhibit at the Düsseldorf trade fair from 7 to 13 May, placing confectionery, bakery, snacks, food, and feed production at the centre of its food equipment programme. The portfolio is built around process efficiency, lower energy use, usability, and the ability to move between formats and recipes with less downtime.
The planned showcase includes a next-generation cocoa nib roasting system using smart roaster control, a new cooling concept, and energy-focused process design. Bühler will also present a compact modular processing line combining mixing and single-pass ball mill grinding for chocolate compounds, spreads, and coatings.
Further launches include upgrades to its conche and five-roll refiner technologies, an enhanced indirect-fired convection oven for products such as biscuits, cookies, and pizzas, and a new generation of extrusion equipment for food and feed production.
One of the most prominent developments is Bühler’s inductive wafer baking oven, designed to improve product quality and production flexibility while cutting energy consumption by up to 50%. Wafer production is energy-intensive, with baking consistency, plate control, and moisture management all influencing final texture, colour, and line efficiency. A lower-energy baking stage can directly reduce operating costs in high-volume wafer and snack plants.
Bakery and confectionery production is under pressure from cocoa volatility, energy costs, labour constraints, and increasingly fragmented product portfolios. Cocoa price increases have sharpened attention on yield, process control, and waste reduction in chocolate production. At the same time, brand owners are asking factories to handle seasonal lines, premium variants, reformulated recipes, and smaller production runs without tying up assets in extended changeovers.
That pressure is pushing equipment development beyond isolated machine performance. The competitive value now sits in how roasting, grinding, refining, baking, cooling, shaping, and extrusion behave as a connected line. Stable process data, repeatable quality, and shorter intervention windows are becoming central to investment decisions in plants that need to protect margins while widening their SKU base.
Bühler’s modular chocolate processing work also reflects the direction of compound coatings, spreads, filled products, and reformulated confectionery. Producers need systems that can support recipe development and scale-up without locking capital into oversized, single-purpose assets. Changing fat systems, sugar reduction, premiumisation, and cost-led reformulation all place heavier demands on process flexibility.
The same pattern is visible in extrusion and bakery equipment. Snack and cereal producers are expanding into higher-protein, fibre-enriched, and alternative-grain formats, while biscuit and pizza producers are looking for more consistent baking curves and lower energy intensity. Equipment that can support faster product development while holding quality parameters tighter is becoming a more decisive part of capital planning.
Interpack will give Bühler a platform to show how those requirements are being translated into machinery. The sharper test will follow in factory trials, where manufacturers will weigh whether incremental upgrades can deliver enough efficiency or whether the next investment cycle will favour more connected, flexible processing architecture.