Vacuum Packaging
Vacuuming Packaging Coffee in an Oxygen Free Environment
All of our efforts to bring you the most aromatic and best tasting Kona Coffees would be spoiled if the coffee was not preserved for later use an Oxygen free environment.
What Does Vacuum Packaging Mean?
Vacuum packing Royal Kona gourmet coffee from Hawaii means that the packaging machine extracts all of the air (Oxygen) out of the package before the package is sealed. The Oxygen content of a finished bag of Coffee is less than 2.5% compared to the air we breathe contains 20% Oxygen. The packaging material used needs to be of a high quality that will form an impervious barrier and therefore does not permit the passage of air into the bag.
How Does the Vacuum Packaging Machine Work
The Vacuum packaging machine at Royal Kona Coffee from Hawaii takes a roll of packaging material, forms it into a coffee bag, applies a one way valve onto the bag (the purpose of a one way valve: The valve allows gasses formed inside the coffee during roasting to escape out of the package through the valve but the valve does not permit Oxygen to come into the package. Without the valve, the gasses escaping from the coffee would cause the package to get puffy and bloat). After application of the valve the package is filled with the proper weight of coffee, the Oxygen is extracted in a vacuum chamber and the finished bag of Oxygen free Royal Kona Gourmet Coffee is ready to be shipped to you as fresh as when it came out of the roaster.
All Royal Kona Coffee from Hawaii is Vacuum Packaged for Freshness
All Royal Kona gourmet coffee from Hawaii is VACUUM PACKAGED for freshness at our facility in Honolulu Hawaii. Why don’t other coffee companies talk about their vacuum packaging practices. The reason they don’t talk about it is because they don’t do it. The equipment required to perform vacuum packaging is very expensive. At Royal Kona Coffee we spare no expense in getting the job done right.
The Royal Kona Coffee - Pledge of Quality
All Royal Kona Coffee from Hawaii is vacuum packaged for freshness, uses only the highest quality ingredients, utilizes 'Best Practices' in its manufacturing facility and provides its valuable employees with a safe and ethical workplace. "We guarantee your unconditional satisfaction with our products. If you are disappointed for any reason we will refund your money or replace the product FREE OF CHARGE. You have my word" Jim Wayman, President
Common Packaging Practice by Many Roasters Guarantees Stale Coffee
It is a common practice for many coffee roasters to pack roasted coffee in premade coffee bags in a full Oxygen environment. This will not suspend the Oxidation process that causes staling. Why purchase expensive gourmet coffee only to have the flavor ruined by being stale? Many coffee roasting companies rationalize this practice by thinking that because they put fresh roasted coffee in a coffee bag with a one-way valve that the gasses expelled by the coffee will push the Oxygen out of the package and keep it fresh. This rationale is not supported by the scientific data which follows in this article. If a coffee company does not specifically state that their product is vacuum packaged, then it is probably stale unless of course it was roasted within the previous few days.
What Does Vacuum Packaging Mean?
Vacuum packing Royal Kona gourmet coffee from Hawaii means that the packaging machine extracts all of the air (Oxygen) out of the package before the package is sealed. The Oxygen content of a finished bag of Royal Kona Coffee less than 2.5% compared to the air we breathe which contains 20% Oxygen. The packaging material needs to be of a quality that will form an impervious barrier and not permit the passage of air into the bag.
How Does the Vacuum Packaging Machine Work
The packaging machine at Royal Kona Coffee from Hawaii takes a roll of packaging material, forms it into a coffee bag, applies a one way valve onto the bag (the purpose of a one way valve: The valve allows gasses formed inside the coffee during roasting to escape out of the package through the valve but the valve does not permit Oxygen to come into the package. Without the valve the gasses escaping from the coffee would cause the package to get puffy and bloat). After application of the one way valve the bag is filled with the proper weight of coffee, the Oxygen is extracted in a vacuum chamber and the finished bag of Oxygen free coffee is ready to be shipped to you as fresh as when it came out of the roaster.
What is the Process That Causes Coffee to Stale?
Staling involves the emission of the gasses from the coffee after roasting. As the roasting gasses are emitted they are replaced with Oxygen from the air we breath. Oxygen is one of the key elements of our life but it is the killer of fine coffee. As the Oxygen is absorbed into the coffee it interacts with more than 1,500 different molecules created during coffee roasting. When molecules are exposed to air, oxidation rapidly breaks down the aromatics into dull, unpleasant woody flavors. With dark roasts it gets worse, since the oils, bleeding to the surface of the coffee, become rancid. Staling accelerates with each day of exposure to Oxygen. Fresh ground coffee should be consumed within 5 to 7 days from exposure to the air. Whole bean coffee will remain relatively fresh for up to two weeks. Quality goes rapidly downhill from there. Ground coffee will begin to lose aromatics within 24 hours if it is not in an Oxygen free environment.
Vacuum Packaging Saves the Day
The way Royal Kona Coffee from Hawaii maintains its high quality aromatics and flavor is by making sure that fresh roasted coffee is packaged quickly after roasting. Once in a vacuum packaged environment there is no Oxygen in the package to attack the Coffee. Oxidation cannot take place so the coffee remains fresh.
Storage of Vacuum Packaged Coffee After the Package has Been Opened
This is a controversial subject with many opinions. I prefer freezing the coffee after opening the package. The scientific standard is that for every ten degrees that you lower the temperature for stored coffee the shelf life will be doubled. If the shelf life is one week at eighty degrees that life would be increased significantly in the freezer. The trick is not to let it thaw and then be refrozen. To do so will cause freezer burn and ruin the coffee. A good methodology is to take a weeks worth of coffee out of the freezer at a time. Store the one week’s worth of coffee in an air tight jar or container and keep it out of bright sunlight. Replace the still frozen coffee back in the freezer immediately to avoid freezer burn. I am a professional coffee cupper and I practice this storage technique myself at home and always enjoy great coffee from my French Press brewer.
The Royal Kona Coffee - Pledge of Quality
All Royal Kona Gourmet Coffee from Hawaii is vacuum packaged for freshness, uses only the highest quality ingredients, utilizes “Best Practices” in its manufacturing facility and treats its valuable employees to a safe and ethical workplace. We guarantee your unconditional satisfaction with our products. If you are disappointed for any reason we will refund your money or replace the product FREE OF CHARGE.
You have my word: Jim Wayman, President of Royal Kona Coffee
Support Documents
The following article by Coffee Enterprises located in Vermont is an excellent reference article. The staff at Coffee Enterprises are some of the foremost coffee experts in the world.
Oxygen and Packaging
http://www.coffeeanalysts.com/testing/packaging.php
Article by:
Coffee Enterprises
32 Lakeside Avenue
Burlington, VT
05401-8319 USA
info@coffee-ent.com
Coffee Package Testing
Freshness is a major determinant of roasted coffee quality and consumer satisfaction. The rate of coffee staling will depend upon the amount of contact with oxygen. Conditions of heat and added moisture will accelerate staling. Moisture-resistant sealed packaging with a minimum of oxygen content is the key to coffee shelf life.
Staling
Staling of coffee occurs gradually as the result of numerous chemical processes affecting the coffee at different rates. The actual amount of time in which these processes take place will depend upon the state of the coffee (whole bean or ground) and conditions of storage (amount of oxygen contact, heat, moisture, and light).
Two basic processes take place during staling:
• The coffee loses desirable flavors
• The coffee gains undesirable flavors
In the graph below, downward lines represent the flavors that are being lost, while upward lines represent undesirable stale flavors. The time indicated is under normal ambient conditions:
Coffee Staling Characteristics Oxygen at 20% (Oxygen content of the air we breathe is 20%)
Comment by Jim Wayman of Royal Kona gourmet coffee from Hawaii: You can see from the graph above that loss of aroma begins within 24 hours of roasting and is completely lost after ten days. A stale aroma replaces the original “fresh coffee” aroma after 3 to 10 days. A stale flavor becomes predominant in 10 to 14 days. After 14 days the coffee is dead!
Types of Packaging and Shelf Life
One-way Valve Bag
Any amount of oxygen absorbed by coffee eventually leads to staleness. However, as the result of sugar browning reactions during roasting, freshly roasted coffee exudes carbon dioxide for up to a week in its whole bean form. For this reason, the highest quality coffees are typically packaged as soon as possible after roasting in a moisture-proof laminated bag containing a one-way valve. This valve allows the carbon dioxide to escape without “ballooning” or rupturing the bag, but does not allow oxygen to enter.
Comment by Jim Wayman of Royal Kona Coffee from Hawaii: As the coffee ages it emits carbon dioxide gas which was built up during roasting. As the carbon dioxide vacates the coffee it is replaced by Oxygen. This is when the staling begins
Other Valve Type Bags
Other types of valves allow carbon dioxide to be expelled through a plastic covered pinhole. This prevents carbon dioxide buildup within the package, but once the carbon dioxide is no longer creating a positive pressure on the coffee side, oxygen can leak into the bag. This is a good solution if the product will move through a system quickly.
No Valves
If the coffee is to be packaged using no valves (including fractionally packaged ground coffee), the coffee must rest (“degas”) before it is packaged. It will pick up some oxygen during the degassing process which will limit shelf life, but otherwise the bag will balloon and possibly rupture, exposing the coffee to ambient levels of oxygen.
Packaging material: Coffee is packaged in materials ranging from paper bags to heavy foil laminates and cans. The packaging type also plays a marketing role. In terms of coffee shelf life, the type should be sealed easily (usually by heat) and moisture-proof.
Oxygen content of no more than 3% in the package is suggested. To ensure freshness at the brew stage, a “use by” date printed on the bags as well as the Julian calendar number printed on the case for the benefit of the retailer might be desirable. If ground coffee is packaged for an individual serving, the weight of coffee per package can be measured (see “Water to Coffee Ratio” in the “Brewing” section following). The actual “use-by” date depends upon the standards of the manufacturer.
Comment by Jim Wayman of Royal Kona Coffee Company: Our Freshness standard is 2.5% Oxygen or less for all packaged coffee.
Testing for Shelf Life
Packaging and the maintenance of packaging equipment is one of the biggest challenges in the roasting facility. Coffee Analysts has designed shelf–life tests so that several samples from a batch are tested at once. Especially in the case of packaging, only testing one bag will not give adequate information about the packaging system.
Use of the leak detector: When excessive oxygen is found, it is important to determine the source. If the equipment is not sealing the bag properly, pinhole leaks can develop that allow small amounts of oxygen into the package over time (immediately after manufacture, no oxygen will be detected). By isolating the location of these leaks, the equipment can be adjusted as necessary.
Often, no leaks are detected in a package with excessive oxygen. This can be a sign that the bags are not being fully flushed with nitrogen, possibly as the result of the line moving too fast.
Comment by Jim Wayman of Royal Kona Coffee Company: Each packaging run is randomly sampled in a leak detector tank like the one above to make sure your Royal Kona Coffee from Hawaii is FRESH.
Valve Bags
For packages with valves, testing for both carbon dioxide and oxygen is recommended. If the coffee was packaged soon after roasting the carbon dioxide level can be as high as 80% after a week. If no carbon dioxide is found in a plastic-covered pinhole valve, the shelf life of the product may be limited.
Fractionally Packaged Coffee
For serving size roasted ground coffee, it is suggested that a random case of product be sent for analysis. All bags are quickly checked for leaks and 20% of the total are tested for oxygen and leaks.
Other Shelf Life Issues
Shelf life samples compared
Where oxygen is the main fuel for staling, excessive moisture absorption accelerates the staling process. For this reason, water activity, the ratio of free water to bound water, is also measured. Work done at the University of Minnesota by Dr. Ted Labuza show that when the water activity is raised to 0.35, the rate of staling increases dramatically. A more ideal level for a medium–roast coffee is 0.20–0.22. Excessive water activity indicates that the coffee was in contact with humid conditions for an extended period of time before packaging or that the package material is an inadequate moisture barrier.
Note from Jim Wayman of Royal Kona Coffee: Each roast or Royal Kona gourmet coffee from Hawaii is tested for moisture content to make sure this is not a problem.
Thank you for your interest!