Our factory perfumes the neighborhood that houses it in Roanne and its permaculture garden also exudes the scent of chocolate. The reason ? Our gardeners use one of the residues from chocolate manufacturing: bean skins. Indeed, at the factory, we reduce our waste as much as possible or reuse it.
The first step in cocoa bean processing is roasting the dried beans. At the end of this operation, they are peeled before being crushed to obtain cocoa nibs, which will be refined in conches to make chocolate. Some of the skins are packaged in organic infusion boxes, but we still have a lot left.
We have been using this “waste” since the creation of our garden. Our gardeners use it to mulch shrubs, to amend growing mounds and scatter it in the paths. At the first rays of the sun, a sweet smell of cocoa perfumes the bays.
Eco-responsibility and cocoa
In its approach towards greater eco-responsibility, which began several years ago, Pralus has decided to limit plastic as much as possible and to use materials made in France for packaging. Thus, it uses new packaging materials, made from cocoa pods. Chocolate ballotins, bags of Agatines, chocolate-coated beans, Mexican beans, Piedmontese beans, as well as boxes of powdered meringues, lemon madeleines or pink pralines are now protected by cocoa paper. A material recognizable by its rough edges or brown spots, which recall the presence of cocoa beans. These packaging are fully recyclable, the PET window is not glued and can be easily removed and thrown into the dedicated bin.
