President
Richard Trout received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University. After graduation, he spent ten years at Hershey Foods in various engineering capacities and then the then joined a British cocoa processing company, holding positions as VP of Engineering and VP of Operations.
Fueled by his entrepreneurial spirit, Richard launched his own manufacturing business in 1984. For his initial company, Richard designed, constructed, and managed a hexane extraction facility, including oil purification operations, to produce food grade and cosmetic grade cocoa butter from industry byproducts.
Following a seven year joint-venture with a major chocolate company to develop and produce dutched cocoas, he engineered and built another extraction facility using food grade propane as a solvent, thus enabling him to expand into extracting other food and nutraceutical products.
More recently, he has engineered and added other capabilities to process oilseeds, including cold pressing, fine powder milling, cocoa dutching, roller and cryogenic milling as well as continuous caustic refining, bleaching, and deodorizing of oils.
