Importance of Coffee Packaging

If the product being talked about wasn’t coffee, the text under this title would encompass the importance of packaging as a marketing addition. Because coffee is the subject here, packaging does not just assume the role of merely a marketing tool.

This article lists how packaging of coffee has a deeper meaning.

Sales Pitch
Just like all the modern day commercially produced products, packaging for coffee is important in terms of making the sales pitch. The product stands out from its competitors owing to its unique packaging. The packaging of coffee allows its customers to review the contents used, or the kinds of beans used, Arabica or Robust; if they might have a specific preference.

Keeping it Fresh
Packaging keeps the coffee products fresh and saves it from staling. The role of packaging is more important in coffee because staling is more rapid in coffee than other products. As with other products staling would mean losing desirable flavors. In case of coffee it is slightly complicated as coffee beans also gain undesirable flavors when stale. The staling of coffee is dependent on its exposure to oxygen, moisture, light and heat.

The marketing research and product development exercises spanning over years of hard-work have given way to the identification of the style of packaging for coffee which can help retain the best of flavors in coffee beans.

One Way Valve Bag
Coffee beans go stale when they come in contact with oxygen. However, protecting them from oxygen by seal packing them may seem like the best way, but another problem remains. Due to roasting of the coffee beans, sugar browning process is triggered. As a result of this process, the beans exude carbon-dioxide. The accumulation of carbon dioxide in a seal pack can cause it to rupture.

In order to counter this problem, the beans instantly after being roasted are packaged in moisture-free, laminated bags containing a valve. This valve allows the carbon-dioxide to evade the packaging without allowing oxygen to enter.

Other Less Efficient Packaging Methods
However other methods exist to package coffee, they are not as effective as one-way valve bag packaging. These include a pinhole packaging which allows the gathered carbon-dioxide to escape through a pinhole. Using this method, the chances for oxygen to enter the bag exist.

Another method includes waiting for the beans to give off carbon-dioxide before they are packaged. This means that however the package was saved from rupturing due to the carbon-dioxide build up inside the bag, the beans could not be saved from staling due to their exposure to oxygen.

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