Shelf life for chocolatiers
Ganache shelf life calculator
Type in a ganache recipe and get a considered shelf-life estimate in seconds — predicted water activity, a cautious worst case, a shelf-life category and a plain-English explanation of what moved the number. No laboratory or aw meter needed.
What it does
From recipe to shelf-life answer — in seconds
The ChocoX Shelf-Life Predictor is a Windows desktop program trained on a large set of ganache recipes with measured water-activity values. Enter each ingredient and its weight in grams. It recognises what each one is, works out the likely water activity, and gives you a shelf-life category — with a conservative worst case and a confidence rating.
- Predicts water activity (aw) for ganache recipes
- Gives a shelf-life category: short, medium or long
- Shows which ingredients raised or lowered the risk
- Advises when a real lab test is the safer course
- Works offline — no internet, no subscription
- Windows 10 or 11 — £25 one-off payment
Proven accuracy
Tested against 250+ real ganache recipes
The Predictor was run against every shelf-life recipe in Callebaut’s Chocolatier’s Kitchen — a reference the trade already trusts. None of those recipes were used to train it, so this was a genuine outside check.
It agreed with the book or was more cautious on about 93% of those recipes, and correctly flagged 52 of the 55 genuinely short-life recipes. When it disagrees, it almost always says “sooner”, not “later” — exactly the right direction for a safety tool.
It is a cautious estimate, not a laboratory certificate. For anything you sell commercially, confirm with a real keeping trial or a lab aw test.
Why water activity matters
The number that governs ganache shelf life
Water activity (aw) measures how much of the water in a ganache is available to support microbial growth. It runs from 0 to 1.0 — and where your recipe sits in that range determines whether it keeps for a week or six weeks. Cream raises it. Sugar, glucose syrup and chocolate lower it. A small formulation change can shift a ganache from one shelf-life band to another. The Predictor makes it easy to explore those changes before you commit to a recipe.
Stop guessing your ganache shelf life
Buy the Shelf-Life Predictor once for £25 and get a considered shelf-life estimate for every recipe you make.