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Chocolate Quality and Shelf Life for Chocolatiers
Our self-paced 100% online Chocolate Quality & Shelf Life for Chocolatiers Program is all about science – the science of producing a quality product, handling and storing it properly and knowing its keeping limits. Shelf life has become even more important as more businesses are shipping products to their customers. We also discuss food safety regulations and labeling standards in depth, especially as they relate to standards, nutrition, dietary restrictions and traceability.
Current Session: September 19 - November 7, 2025
$390.00 US funds for US and International Residents
$390.00 CAD funds for Canadian Residents plus GST
There are no supplies needed for this program but you will be asked to make one of your own chocolate recipes to complete a standing study and report on the results for one of your assignments.
NEW STUDENTS, click here: NEW STUDENT REGISTRATION
Ecole Chocolat STUDENTS OR GRADUATES click here: REGISTRATION
What Will I Learn?
Production quality assurance
- Understand HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices).
- Learn about global food safety standards and both product labeling and nutritional labeling requirements.
Food chemistry, recipe development and food safety
- Develop your own chocolate and ingredient specification checklist and inventory control systems for traceability.
- Review safety standards for recipe development and production techniques.
Determining shelf life of bonbons and confections
- Gain knowledge in the common shelf-life issues for chocolatiers.
- Discuss the role, or not, of preservatives both natural and synthetic used to extend the keeping limits.
- Perform your own recipe evaluation (with standing study results, including keeping limit recommendations).
Your Learning Experience
When is the Chocolate Quality & Shelf Life Program offered during the year?
We offer sessions of the program starting in January and September each year.
Is there a restriction on the number of students you take each session?
Even though the curriculum is online, we do cut off registrations when we reach the maximum number of students our instructor and online tutor feel they have adequate time to be able to work with properly.
TO ENSURE A SEAT IN THE PROGRAM, check the program date above to see if the current session is still open. When the program is full, we change the program date to the future session.
How do we teach chocolate making online?
Click here for a more information about our learning experience.
Our faculty
Click here to read more about our instructors and tutors.
Class assessment
Students will be assessed by completion of assignments throughout the program.
Certificate
Students completing the program with a score of 70% or more will receive an Ecole Chocolat Certificate of Achievement.
What our graduates have to say
“This is has been eye opening and helpful to see how one ingredient can change the whole shelf-life of your product. It is good to recognize them and be able to research how you are going to use them and this class was great at bringing each item into light. It was my goal to have an understanding on shelf life and how to extend it with ingredient, water content and storage options. It was helpful to have so much information at our fingertips.”
Lisa, '24 Graduate
“I thought it was a very good program. The program gave me confidence in knowing how to better communicate information, how to make sure I'm being safe during production, and what causes problems and how best to resolve them. I thought the information was provided in a way that anyone with basic knowledge would understand. The master recipes were interesting and helpful. The cautions were repeated throughout and I thought that was helpful.”
Allison, '24 Graduate
“This is the second class I have taken with ecolechocolat. One of the things I really appreciate about your classes, is you don't just feed the student answers, you provide and guide with information for the student to think things through. That being said, I am not a very 'science smart' person and for me I feel like this only started me thinking... mainly just realizing how ignorant I am on the subject. I did learn things I need to extend the shelf life of my bonbons.”
Jane, '23 Graduate
Cancellation policy
You can cancel from the Chocolate Quality & Shelf Life Program up to three days before the start of the program. A refund of your registration fee, minus a 10% administration fee, may take approximately 10 working days to process. Because our programs are usually full, and in order to make sure all students are committed, on the start date of your program, your registration fee becomes non-refundable and non-transferable to another session (except in extraordinary circumstances).
Get reminders about upcoming classes! To receive program updates and news, click the link below.
Photography by Jessica Washburn, Bliss Chocolatier and Ecole Chocolat
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Contact Us
Email: info@ecolechocolat.com
Visits by appointment only:
505 Montgomery
San Francisco, CA U.S.
1-213-291-8309
Canadian or International
1666 West 2nd Ave
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
1-604-484-1872
Ecole Chocolat is a woman-owned and operated chocolate education organization. Founded by chocolatier, Pam Williams, we are the professional school of chocolate arts for both chocolatiers and chocolate makers. We also donate our time, leadership, expertise and funds to preserve the fine chocolate industry and save fine cacao.
