page_title: Decaffeination
section_title: Swiss Water process
hierarchical_section_title: Decaffeination / Decaffeination of coffee / Decaffeination processes / Swiss Water process
caption_attribution_description: English: This photo shows a partially-full 130lb sack of green coffee beans. The beans have been decaffeinated using the swiss water process.
context_page_description: Decaffeination is the removal of caffeine from coffee beans, cocoa, tea leaves, and other caffeine-containing materials. Decaffeinated drinks contain typically 1–2% of the original caffeine content, and sometimes as much as 20%. Decaffeinated products are commonly termed decaf.
context_section_description: An alternative method for removal of caffeine from coffee is the Swiss Water process. This process uses no organic solvents, and instead only water is used to decaffeinate beans, a technique first developed in Switzerland in 1933, and commercialised by Coffex S.A. in 1980.  The Swiss Water process was then introduced by The Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, in 1988. 
  The process uses Green Coffee Extract (GCE) for the caffeine extraction mechanism. Green Coffee Extract is a solution containing the water-soluble components of green coffee except for the caffeine, obtained by soaking green coffee beans in hot water, then filtering through an activated charcoal filter to remove the caffeine molecules. Fresh beans containing both caffeine and the other components are added to the GCE solution, where the gradient pressure difference between the GCE (which is caffeine-lean) and the green coffee (which is caffeine-rich) causes the caffeine molecules to migrate from the green coffee into the GCE. Because GCE is saturated with the other water-soluble components of green coffee, only the caffeine molecule migrates to the GCE; the other water-soluble coffee elements are retained in the green coffee. The newly caffeine-rich GCE solution is then passed through the activated carbon filters to again remove the caffeine, and the process is repeated. The continuous batch process takes 8–10 hours to meet the final residual decaffeinated target.
  Noted food engineer Torunn Atteraas Garin also developed a process to remove caffeine from coffee.
caption: Sack of green coffee beans decaffeinated by the Swiss Water process
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "SONY DSC", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "NEX-3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "NEX-3 Ver.03", "Image DateTime": "2011:07:03 13:45:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "376", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 6, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "47784", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "16716", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:07:03 13:45:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:07:03 13:45:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "81/50", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "217/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "40", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3056", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "43606", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "60", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS"}