why coffee bean packaging works

Coffee is a truly unique food product. Fresh coffee beans need to be protected from exposure to 0xygen while they are giving off large quantities of carbon dioxide. Until relatively recently, it was impossible to package fresh coffee beans without risk of the product become prematurely stale from exposure to oxygen.

Today's food packaging industry successfully conquers this difficulty through the use of a one-way coffee degassing valve. The one-way degassing valve is glued to the inside of whole bean coffee packages.

To learn more, we saved an empty package of Dunkin' Donuts whole bean coffee and cut the plastic de-gassing valve from the package.















The plastic de-gassing valve peeled easily from the packaging material.















Using a screwdriver, the top and bottom of the de-gassing valve comes apart, revealing a soft piece of gray plastic sandwiched in the middle. Gas escapes through the valve from the coffee package, but oxygen is prevented from entering the package. What a great invention!



The valve we examined was manufactured by Fres-co System USA Inc. Fres-co is an innovative manufacturer of flexible food packaging systems. The mechanics of their coffee de-gassing valve are depicted here.