Making chicory | Chicorée Leroux

THE ENTIRE PROCESS IS WELL CONTROLLED CREATING A FINAL PRODUCT WITH VERY LITTLE TRANSFORMATION

Leroux chicory is 100% exclusively grown and transformed in north France via an ecological short supply chain. We work closely with around 200 farmers & growers with in-depth knowledge of agricultural and industrial techniques, protecting both their expertise and the chicory root, throughout the transformation process.

Whether the final product is grains, liquid or instant chicory, one or more products must be designed at each step of the transformation process. Our products can be used by industrial firms or sold straight to private customers.

Notre chicorée est SELECTED, GROWN AND HARVESTED DRIED AND MICRONISED ROASTED AND GROUND EXTRACTED ATOMISED PACKAGED

Our selection teams include researchers able to produce seeds that are compatible with our needs in order to produce ever-more effective varieties.

Chicorée Leroux grows its chicory on plantations in the Hauts-de-France region, benefitting from silty soil and ideal weather conditions for the growth of Cichorium intybus. The plants are sown in the spring and harvested 6 months later when the roots reach maturity, swollen with inulin, a food-grade fibre with many benefits for all of us.

Chicorée Leroux processes approximately 60,000 tonnes of roots. The initial transformation takes place at the Vieille-Eglise site in the Pas-de-Calais.

The roots are 76% water and cut into slices before being dehydrated over several hours of drying, protecting the natural nutrients in the plant, including inulin. Once humidity levels reach 10%, the slices, then called “cossettes”, are transferred to a cooler before being put in storage.

Chicory flour is white, like most flours. The chicory is not roasted, and retains all of its components. The cossettes are ground into fine powder as is. This process is known as micronisation.

The raw materials are roasted as part of a process including baking, heating and toasting. This process leads to the brown hue and typical roasted chicory aromas. Our expert roasters adjust the temperature and roasting period during this phase to guide the transformations underway.

After the cossettes have been expertly roasted by our teams, they are left to cool for approximately 30 minutes before grinding. The flavour of the chicory depends on this phase.

The cossettes are ground to various sizes after roasting. Thanks to our team of experts, we can offer a wide range of products with various grain sizes.

The chicory must be converted into a liquid format for some of our products. The ground roasted chicory is routed to the extractors for this purpose, soaking the grains in 90°C water. The juice is then filtered, passed through a centrifuge and evaporated to produce a concentrate. This gives the liquid chicory.

Liquid chicory extract can also be concentrated by boiling until 55% of the product is dry matter, creating concentrated liquid chicory extract. The chicory paste is ready when 70% of the product is dry matter.

After creating the extract, the liquid chicory is sprayed from the top of a 37 m high atomisation tower in order to produce instant chicory: the liquid is sprayed into a hot air flow as fine droplets, and a free-flowing brown powder then forms.

We offer a wide range of packaging options, allowing us to meet the expectations of industrial firms to the best of our ability.

Dehydrated chicory powder: bagged at our Orchies site
Chicory grains: placed in big bags/bagged at our Orchies site and packaged in packs in the Pas-de-Calais
Instant chicory: placed in jars or sticks at our Orchies site
Liquid chicory: placed in IBCs at our Orchies site or bottled in Loiret
Boxes: managed by a work-based assistance service and unit (ESAT) operating under the direct supervision of Chicorée Leroux for more than a decade