The aim of this work was to optimize the ball mill based refining process of chocolate, in terms of refining time and energy consumption. Experiments were planned following a central composite design (CCD), considering refining time (rt) and agitator shaft speed (as) as factors. The experimental variables measured were chosen from the main characteristics that describe unmoulded chocolate. A complete second-order model was fitted to the experimental data. The most significant coefficients were that of energy consumption, iron content and particle size. Optimization consists in a bound minimization of refining time using the desirability function. Before experiments, working conditions were 70 rpm for as and 55 min for rt. The optimum conditions calculated by optimization were as follows: 58 rpm for as and 38.5 min for rt. The new working conditions identified for the ball mill considered enabled to rise output from 109 kg/h to 156 kg/h, with a 43% increase in productivity. A control experiment carried out in the optimized conditions to corroborate the results obtained, confirmed calculated expectations of response variables. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.