How does packaging material affect the quality of green coffee over time?

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Green coffee or fresh coffee is unroasted coffee, they are very sensitive to moisture, light and temperature. If not stored well, their quality will be affected. Especially during long transit times, green coffee can be severely damaged causing losses to producers and suppliers. So the packaging material affects the quality of green coffee? What kind of material should be chosen for green coffee packaging? Let’s find the answer with 43 Factory Coffee Roaster through this article!

Some green coffee packaging materials are commonly used in the world

For a long time, roasters have paid attention to using thick, durable materials to make coffee packaging. As technology develops, they are also improved to increase the ability to preserve quality and flavor for a long time. Here are some materials used for green coffee packaging in the world:

Burlap (Burlap)

Burlap fabric is also known as canvas fabric, raw cotton fabric. It is woven from hemp, jute with coarse texture, thick, durable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly. Because of these advantages combined with relatively low cost, they have been utilized to produce green coffee packaging.

However, burlap has the disadvantage of being waterproof, quite poor, making it easy for moisture and oxygen to penetrate into the package. This not only degrades the quality of the coffee, but can also cause mold. Moreover, the capacity of traditional cloth bags is only limited from 60kg – 70kg, which is quite inconvenient for manufacturers who need to store and transport in large quantities.

Plastic

Mostly, plastic packaging is made of polyethylene or polypropylene. The same material is commonly used in coffee packaging, but when compared to burlap, they are more optimal in terms of moisture resistance, gas resistance and size. Therefore, people often use plastic packaging to preserve green coffee beans in case they require a large capacity of 60kg or more or a container liner.

High-barrier plastic

Multi-layer specialized plastic is a material that uses modern machinery technology to create multi-component plastic packaging films. Coffee packaging made from this material has superior properties such as preventing the exchange of gas, water, odor and other impurities better than ordinary plastic. Although it has a higher price, it is still popular because of its ability to stabilize coffee for a long time and comes in a variety of sizes.

Vacuum

Vacuum-packed coffee is essentially stored in a waterproof plastic bag, which is created with a negative pressure to suck out all the air inside. With this method, green coffee will be preserved most effectively because the layer of air, water and moisture has been completely removed. Therefore, to use this method, the units need a relatively large amount of money to invest in machinery and equipment, thereby causing the price of coffee to be pushed up. Therefore, people usually store only vacuum coffee with sample coffees or specialty coffees with micro lots and nano lots.

Impact of packaging material on coffee quality over time

Coffee flavor can be affected by many factors such as temperature, humidity, light,…. So does the preservative material affect the taste of coffee?

Does the packaging material affect the taste of the coffee?

The longer the storage time, the quality of green coffee beans will be affected, especially the sweetness and acidity in the beans will be reduced because the substances in the beans are changed due to environmental factors. Packaging with good waterproofing and air resistance will minimize the change of coffee beans under the influence of external factors, preserving the best quality and flavor of coffee beans. Different packaging materials provide corresponding protective effects.

Giselle Figueiredo Abreu is an agricultural engineer and author of the book “Raman Spectroscopy who conducted research to understand the impact of storage packaging materials on green coffee beans. This research is supervised by Professor Borem. They use professional Q classifiers to measure flavor quality and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Raman spectroscopy to check for changes in the chemical composition of coffee beans in other preservatives. each other over time.

From 0 – 6 months

The researchers used a professional Q sorter to test the taste of coffee in different packaging materials for the first six months, and the results showed no noticeable change in flavor. However, when comparing coffee beans by NMR and Raman spectroscopy at three and six months, they found that coffee stored in permeable materials such as burlap had a small change in composition. chemistry. In contrast, samples stored in highly waterproof bags did not show any obvious chemical changes.

During the first six months, the change of green coffee beans cannot be perceived with the naked eye and can only be detected through chemical composition analysis. Accordingly, the quality of coffee will change if it is not carefully preserved with highly waterproof materials such as High-barrier plastic or Vacuum. Leandro Martinoto – P&D Director at Videplast recommends using multi-layer materials with high waterproofing ability to preserve green coffee beans immediately after processing. For large shipments, manufacturers can use large packages combined with linings with high water resistance to save space and costs. For smaller shipments or during transportation, coffee can be stored in multi-layer, vacuum specialized plastic bags to ensure quality.

From 6 – 18 months

After six months, the taste of coffee stored in different types of packaging has changed markedly. When tested with the Q sorter, the coffee in the permeable packaging started to decompose and the taste score decreased, while in the waterproof packaging there was not much change:

– After 9 months the taste of coffee in absorbent packaging has dropped from 85 points to 80 points and after 18 months it has dropped to just 75 points.

– In contrast, after 12 months, coffee beans in waterproof packaging still reached 83 – 84 points and by 18 months they still remained at 82 points.

What material should be chosen to preserve green coffee beans?

As can be seen, waterproof materials help preserve coffee better than absorbent materials. Therefore, manufacturers can choose multi-layer, vacuum specialized plastic to ensure the quality of their coffee.

In a stable environment like a research room, coffee beans in permeable packaging are still affected, reducing flavor scores. In large warehouses or in the import-export process, there is often humidity and unstable temperature, which makes the coffee spoil and reduce quality faster. Therefore, when it is necessary to transport or store coffee for a long time, the use of materials with high water resistance will help the coffee maintain the best possible quality.

The material with high water resistance for green coffee beans will significantly reduce the degradation of the beans over time. Moreover, this also helps to increase the consumer experience. The higher the waterproofing and air resistance of the packaging material, the better the coffee flavor will be protected. As a result, consumers will have a better experience with this multi-layered drink. If you find the article useful, please follow 43 Factory Coffee Roaster to update new information about coffee.

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