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The new “GEA BATCH FORMULA® PRO High Shear Mixer” can be adapted to specific and changing manufacturing needs in order to adapt processing to maximum efficiency and lowest energy use. (Photo courtesy by GEA)
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GEA is one of the world’s largest systems suppliers for the food and beverage sectors and has announced ambitious plans to improve sustainability the company seeks to expand organic sales to grow by an average 4-6% per year in the 2021-2026 period. (Photo courtesy by GEA)
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Volpak's recently launched SP 170 machinery line represents an advanced degassing coffee pouch packaging system that is both water and energy efficient and use material that makes the pouch recyclable. (Photo courtesy by Volpak)
Coffee machinery makers from individual roasting and packing solutions to mixers or large-scale plants requiring highly advanced technology such as freeze-dried soluble manufacturing increasingly implement new initiatives to ensure long-term sustainability is improved.
A long list of new equipment introduced to the market across the global coffee industry in recent months covers new sustainability initiatives in line with the growing consumer focus on climate change and environmentally friendly products. This covers everything from small-scale packaging and roasting solutions addressing specific retail or manufacturing needs, to mixers and coffee services designed specifically for the hospitality sector, according to company information and corporate investors officials.
Two of the industry’s top innovators, GEA of Denmark and Germany, and Spain’s Volpak, both launched ambitious new design strategies ahead of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to open Oct. 31 in the Scottish town of Glasgow, seeking to build on how to further enhance the companies’ environmental footprint and improve the long-term sustainability of products they design.
“Sustainability is firmly anchored in the company’s DNA,” said GEA’s Germany-based c.e.o. Stefan Klebert said in a statement to STiR Coffee and Tea, adding that GEA is in a new five-year plan seeking to expand organic sales to grow by an average 4-6% per year from 2021-2026. This is part of an overall plan to reduce the company’s own greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2040 to contribute toward stabilizing overall global warming at maximum 1.5°C according to international agreements, said Klebert.
In line with GEA’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase sales of organic products, the company’s new “mixing formula line” introduces a series of new batch-mixers including the GEA Batch Formula® Pro high shear mixer which can be adapted to specific and changing manufacturing specifications/need for maximum efficiency and lowest energy use, according to company information. The high shear mixer, which uses a rotating impeller or high-speed rotor, is more energy efficient in manufacturing of coffee and tea whiteners of flavors mixing.
From top-notch innovative machinery and advanced processing technology across multiple segments in the coffee industry from instant coffee plants, unique flavors for both coffee and tea products catering to the ready-to-drink (RTD) market, GEA is one of the world’s largest systems suppliers for the food and beverage sectors.
“One recent report estimates that the global RTD tea and coffee market will continue to grow steadily and reach US$116.13 billion by 2024,” said GEA in a company report, adding the global market for instant coffee is “projected to increase from US$28 billion in 2016 to more than US$42.5 billion by the end of 2025.”
With milk-based coffee beverages continuing to represent a major share of the final coffee products sold in the retail, café, and hospitality sector, there is growing attention to how higher sustainability standards can be applied. Mixers and blender products attract a lot of interest to new machinery promising higher sustainability improvement to a company’s product or processing line.
From more efficient energy use to low-water use mixers, US company Admix Inc’s new in-tank mixer DynaShear centers on sustainability that translates into cost-saving operations while at the same time boost the company profile with consumers.
“The DynaShear inline, high-speed, high-shear disperser has a powerful dual-stage rotor/stator design, ensuring that 100% of powder ingredients are fully utilized,” said Admix in an investor relations report. The DynaShear promises a “smooth and completely uniform” mix for products including ice cream, flavored milks, and coffee creamer, said Admix.
Long one of the fastest growing industries in Spain, the coffee sector offers booming sales for Barcelona-based Volpak, part of the Italian-owned Coesia group of companies that specialize in the design and marketing of flexible packaging solutions, including a large client base for roasted whole bean and ground coffee used by roasters and coffee service companies in over 130 countries worldwide.
Following up on Volpak’s SC+ series of high-speed continuous motion machines for small and large-scale packaging of stand-up coffee pouches initially launched in 2018, the company’s recently launched Volpak SP 170 packaging line represents a new highly advanced system that enables degassing of coffee well after the actual roasting process to ensure that even after the pouch is packed the coffee will continue to slowly release carbon dioxide and other volatile gases that can compromise the extended shelf time while the pouch itself is recyclable.
“Volpak offers a brand-new packaging technology allowing customers to produce flexible pouches made of 100% recyclable paper, no aluminum or plastic film is used,” Volpak said in a statement, adding that its mission is to design sustainable packaging that “does not cost the Earth and helps the circular economy.”