Stories

The Barry Callebaut Company began with the Callebaut family back in 1850. This highly entrepreneurial family founded a chocolate company in 1911 to add to its existing dairy and brewery. A century later, the family company had grown into an international company.

Belgian chocolate enjoys worldwide fame. And with just cause: Belgium is the country that ‘discovered’ the praline and no other country has more chocolatiers. Belgium is home to a multitude of the greatest names in the world of chocolate.

Barry Callebaut, owning the biggest chocolate factory in the world which is located in Belgium, received the right to use the first health claim in the cocoa and chocolate industry.

Of course, Belgium has a lot of nice beers. And let’s not forget about their chocolate. But when it comes to other products, Belgians are often too humble.

Remo-Frit, a potato processing factory in Beveren Belgium, uses potato peels coming from the potato processing to produce biogas: a very nice example of using a by-product from a food processing plant as a source of alternative energy which is paying for electricity that would otherwise be bought

The Belgian Company Vanparys celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2014. This jubilee year was celebrated with a visit to the company’s production center by H.R.H Queen Mathilde of Belgium and Rudi Vervoort, prime minister of the Brussels Metropolitan Government.

Why do not all women drink beer? That may sound like a naive question, but it isn’t. It is a popular misconception that women don’t like beer. “Brewing is something you do with passion,“ says Belgian beer sommelier Sofie Vanrafelghem –yes, a woman- taking another sip from her beer glass.

Time for a little chocolate quiz! Where was the very first praline invented? In Belgium, by Neuhaus. Where is the world’s biggest chocolate factory located? Again, in Belgium: the Callebaut factory in Wieze. Where do you find the most exquisite pralines today? You’ve guessed it: in Belgium.

Belgium is only a small stretch of land along the North Sea. Still, every day and every night 7,500 farmers are growing potatoes there. Planting them, digging them up, keeping them cool, testing and comparing their tastes, improving their growing process.

How do you recognize a Belgian abroad? They’re the ones asking for mayonnaise with their meals—the French joke with slight disdain over their northern neighbors. Belgians, however, are rightly proud of their mayonnaise and other condiments that give meals an extra tasty, personal touch.

"Feeding the nine billion people on our planet without wheat and other grains is impossible. “In that context our research is fundamental, “says professor Jan Delcour, a world authority when it comes to unlocking the secrets of grains.