A coffee bag is a container used for shipping and storing coffee. Coffee beans are usually transported in large

jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

sacks, while coffee sold to consumers may be packaged as beans or ground coffee in a small, sealed plastic bag.

Bulk coffee

Large bulk bags, burlap bags or

gunny sack A burlap sack or gunny sack, also known as a gunny shoe, hessian sack or tow sack, is an inexpensive bag, traditionally made of fibres which are also known as "tow," such as hessian fabric (burlap) formed from jute, hemp or other natural fibre ...

s are traditionally used for storage and transport of coffee beans. Often it is made of

and has a content of 60

kilograms The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially ...

(130 pounds), this type of bag originated in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and became a worldwide standard. It also became a measurement unit to this day, for example

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

's statistics on coffee production are expressed in 60-kg bags. Jute fibers are treated with

mineral oil Mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum, as distinct from usually edible vegetable oils. The name 'mineral oil' by itself is imprecise, ...

, or historically

whale oil Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. Whale oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tears, tear" or "drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil obtained from the ...

, to improve spinnability, which raised questions about coffee contamination from these hydrocarbons, but further studies showed it to be infinitesimal. Bags with synthetic fibers (woven or non-woven) are commonly used now. Once used, these decorative bags can be

recycled Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

or upcycled for many uses including in clothing. The 60 kg sack is starting to be replaced by huge

polypropylene Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefins and ...

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...

bags, such as the

flexible intermediate bulk container A flexible intermediate bulk container (FIBC), jumbo, bulk bag, super sack, big bag, or tonne bag is an industrial container made of flexible fabric that is designed for storing and transporting dry, flowable products, such as sand, fertilizer, ...

. These are increasingly used for coffee exports - especially from Brazil.

Intermodal shipping container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode of transport, modes of trans ...

s are common for international shipping.

Consumer packaging

Smaller bags are used by consumers for coffee beans or for ground coffee. Multi-layer, high graphics, bags have largely replaced

steel can A steel can, tin can, tin (especially in British English, Australian English, Canadian English and South African English), steel packaging, or can is a container for the distribution or storage of goods, made of thin metal. Many cans re ...

s (tins) for consumer ground coffee. There is a tendency for pressure from carbon dioxide to build up in these barrier bags. Special pressure relief valves have been developed to relieve the pressure without letting atmosphere into the bags. Valves are either heat sealed or attached by adhesive. The bags are not readily recyclable but compare favourably in life-cycle studies with metal cans on broader issues.

Examples

File:Counter Culture Coffee Bag.jpg, Multilayer plastic bag with a pressure-relief valve File:CXLT Coffee.jpg, Coffee beans in plastic bag purchased at local grocery store File:Coffee grinder - store.jpg, Coffee grinder at grocery store with paper bag for ground coffee

References

* Yam, K.L., "Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology", John Wiley & Sons, 2009, {{packaging Coffee industry Bags Food packaging