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

jute Jute ( ) is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be Spinning (textiles), spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ...

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 gunny sack, also known as a gunny shoe, burlap sack, hessian sack or tow sack, is a large Bag, sack, traditionally made of burlap (Hessian fabric) formed from jute, hemp, sisal, or other natural fibres, usually in the crude Spinning (textile ...

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 spelled kilogramme) is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand grams. It has the unit symbol kg. The word "kilogram" is formed from the combination of the metric prefix kilo- (m ...

(130 pounds); this type of bag originated in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition ...

'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. Oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train-oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tear drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil used in the cavities of sperm whales, ...

, 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. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

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 Propene, propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefin ...

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 bott ...

bags, such as the

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

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

Intermodal shipping container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, or a freight container, (or simply "container") is a large metal crate designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different mod ...

s are common for international shipping.

Consumer packaging

Smaller bags are used by consumers for coffee beans or ground coffee. Multi-layer graphics bags have largely replaced steel cans (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 the 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 a plastic bag purchased at local grocery store File:Coffee grinder - store.jpg, Coffee grinder at grocery store with a paper bag for ground coffee

References

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