Compostable Single-Serve Coffee Capsule Producer Wins 2015 Food Valley Award

15 Oct 2015 --- The winner of the 2015 Food Valley Award is a compostable single-serve coffee capsule filled with fair-trade Arabica coffee, developed by Peeze Coffee Roasters from Arnhem, the Netherlands. This innovative capsule was developed through a unique partnership between various companies. It is a product with great market potential, as coffee drinkers worldwide use 14 billion capsules per year.

“The fact that Peeze’s biobased coffee capsules won the 2015 Food Valley Award just goes to show how important quality and sustainability are. Our coffee capsules can provide hundreds of thousands of people with a sustainable alternative,” says Timmo Terpstra, managing director at Peeze Coffee Roasters. “Winning the award is a great incentive to continue on this path. Obviously, this success also reflects on our business partner ATI. Together, we’ve worked incredibly hard these past few years. Peeze’s biobased capsules will be widely available early next year.”

The capsule developed by Peeze Coffee Roasters and ATI (Advanced Technology Innovations) is a sustainable alternative for existing single-serve coffee capsules. The entire capsule and the foil used to seal it are made of polylactic acid (PLA), a biobased compostable material. The capsules contain premium Arabica coffee that is certified climate-neutral, organic and fair trade.

This innovative product was developed in response to the fast-growing market for single-serve capsules. Launched in early 2015, the capsules were made available to customers in various European countries.

The PLA used to make the capsules had to be modified so it could withstand the hot water in Nespresso-type coffee machines while remaining puncturable by the high-pressure water in the machine. The material also had to have adequate oxygen-barrier properties to maintain the coffee’s special aroma.

Peeze was able to develop this innovation by closely collaborating with several other companies. They faced some big challenges, like the more than 1,700 patents that apply to Nespresso-type capsules and the unique functional requirements on the renewable material, which had to replace both aluminum and petroleum-based plastic. The final result, however, is impressive: a single-serve coffee capsule that can be thrown in the organic waste bin after use. 

The Food Valley Award judges’ panel said this about the biobased coffee capsules: “We were impressed with this innovation, which provides a high-quality, sustainable alternative for a widely-used product with a huge and growing global market. Peeze created this unique and socially responsible alternative by collaborating with inventive partners and combining new technology with renewable resources. Peeze has succeeded in delivering a high-quality cup of coffee that meets consumers’ desire for convenience while contributing to the circular economy.”

This is the 11th year that Food Valley NL has presented the Food Valley Award. An independent panel of experts judged the entries on their innovativeness, economic viability, degree and originality of collaboration. The other nominees considered for this year’s prize were the energy-efficient scalding process for defeathering poultry developed by Marel Stork Poultry Processing, and the technology to extract pectin from coffee bean pulp developed by Pectcof.