Annealing

A heat treatment in which a material is heated and then cooled slowly to relieve internal stresses and stabilise its structure. In food engineering the concept appears in several guises: glass containers are annealed so they survive thermal shock; chocolate tempering uses controlled thermal cycling to lock cocoa butter into the stable crystal form that gives snap and gloss; and starch scientists anneal granules below gelatinisation temperature to modify pasting behaviour. The unifying idea is the same — a managed thermal history producing a more stable, predictable material — applied from packaging lines to confectionery factories.