STiR coffee and tea magazine

12 STiR coffee and tea | 2026 Quarter 1 Spring (Mar/Apr/May) New Packaging Reforms Challenge Coffee Industry A wave of packaging legislation now moving through the European Union and Australia, with signals from Canada, and the UK, not far behind, is about to raise the bar dramatically. For coffee brands and roasters, what goes around the cup matters just as much as what goes inside it. The EU's new Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR), published in the Official Journal in December 2024, becomes legally binding across all 27 member states on 12 August 2026. The rules are wide-reaching and nonnegotiable. All packaging placed on the EU market must be recycla- ble. Plastic packaging must contain a minimum of 10-35% postconsumer recycled content, depending on format. Excessive weight, volume, and space are explicitly banned under a new minimization mandate. For the specialty coffee sector, two provisions deserve particular attention. First, tea and coffee bags, including permeable filter pods and sachets, are now classified as packaging and must meet industrial compost- ing and biowaste standards. Second, single-use plastic packaging for condiments, coffee creamers, and sugar portions in the food service (HORECA) sector will be prohibited from January 2030. Standardized pictogram labeling indicating material composition will be mandatory, and producers must register in national producer registers, with extended financial responsibility for end-of-life waste management. Ger- many has already drafted a national implementation act, and other member states are expected to follow suit before the August 2026 deadline. On the other side of the world, Australia is overhauling a packaging framework that has long relied on voluntary industry schemes and fragment- ed state-level policies, through the National Waste Policy. Updated guidance released in February outlines how the national packaging policy is shifting toward clearer compliance obligations, improved recycling outcomes, and greater accountability across packaging supply chains. Led by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, the reform program is working toward a consistent national standard International packaging industry standards are set to change as the EU and Australia pass new mandatory reforms, with Canada and the UK set to follow. Photo credit: Angela Roma requiring that all packaging placed on the Austra- lian market be recyclable, reusable, or composta- ble, with problematic materials phased out. Extended producer responsibility is a central pillar of the proposed framework. For international coffee brands and packaging suppliers exporting to Australia, the changes may require material reformulations, new data reporting obligations, and updated labeling to meet incoming national standards. The EU and Australia are not acting in isolation. The UK's Extended Producer Respon- sibility for packaging came into force in 2025, placing financial obligations on large producers and importers. Canada has been advancing its own national plastics registry and recycled content requirements. By Bhavi Patel Protein Boosts Coffee Sales Health trends come and go, and coffee is as susceptible to these cycles as any other industry. The latest such trend is protein, which has taken the food and beverage sector by storm over the past few years and has recently become a big deal within the coffee industry. A 2025 report by the agribusiness giant Cargill found that 61% of consumers were actively increasing their protein intake in 2024, up from 48% in 2019. A combination of social media influencers and other health trends helped push protein into the mainstream. Younger consumers are leading the charge: Just 34% of older generations are willing to spend more on protein-enhanced items, but that rises to 56% for Millennials and Gen Z. The coffee industry has taken notice. The high-protein coffee market was estimated at $4.5 billion in 2024, and is projected to grow to as much as $16.5 billion by 2035. Big chains like Starbucks and Peet's Coffee have introduced protein-infused coffee products in response to growing customer demand. "Our new protein beverages tap into the growing consumer demand for protein in an innovative, premium, and delicious way," Tressie Lieberman, Starbucks' global chief brand officer, said in a September 2025 press release. The company released a ready-to-drink (RTD) protein-enhanced coffee in the UK a year earlier. Health influencers had previously gone viral on TikTok, bringing their own protein powder to customize their Starbucks coffee orders. The rise of protein coffee (or "proffee" as it's sometimes dubbed) is just a part of the wider functional coffee trend that has engulfed the industry over the past decade. These drinks, dominated by RTD formats, contain ingredients like mushrooms, superfruits, cannabinoids, or collagen, and are often marketed as healthier than regular coffee. Protein powder pumps up coffee menus around the world as demand for functional ingredients grows. Photo credit: Phillip Pessar But much like the wider protein-enhanced product trend, the actual efficacy of these drinks is debated. Because functional beverages are a relatively new category, there hasn't been a lot of research on their actual effects. However, the size of the market — and its projected growth — means that ever more companies are likely to jump on the protein coffee bandwagon. By Fionn Pooler Coffee Report

• Cover