Kaffe Bueno Takes Gold at ICI 2025 with KLEANSTANT® — A Breakthrough in Sustainable Surfactants
- Kaffe Bueno
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Jakarta, May 14th 2025
Kaffe Bueno, the Copenhagen-based ingredient company, has been awarded Gold in the Functional Ingredients Category at the ICI Best Ingredients Award 2025 for its surfactant innovation KLEANSTANT®, held during the Indonesia Cosmetic Ingredients (ICI) exhibition.
As the first and most technologically advanced company worldwide upcycling coffee by-product into active and functional ingredients for personal care, Kaffe Bueno registered the innovative INCI Potassium Coffeeate in 2023, after years of R&D.
In 2024, the Danish bioscience company launched their innovation under the trade name KLEANSTANT®. In the same year, KLEANSTANT® was awarded Bronze at the Pure Beauty Awards UK and was a shortlisted finalist at in-cosmetics Asia in the functional ingredients category.
“This award recognises the value of our science, our commitment to sustainability, and the industry's readiness to adopt bio-based innovation,” said Alejandro Franco, Co-Founder and CCO at Kaffe Bueno.
KLEANSTANT®: A New Era for Natural Surfactants
KLEANSTANT® is a natural, bio-based anionic surfactant, upcycled from KAFFOIL®, a coffee oil that is 9.4 times more sustainable than palm oil.
Rich in linoleic and palmitic acids, polyphenols, tocopherols, and diterpene esters, KLEANSTANT® delivers a combination of cleansing efficacy, antioxidative activity, and a soft, moisturising skin feel. Its emollient and foaming properties make it ideal for a wide range of personal care formulations, while its clean-label profile, free from sulphates, petroleum, and palm derivatives, supports the growing demand for safe, sustainable alternatives.
Beyond functionality, KLEANSTANT® represents a new standard in ingredient development—combining measurable sustainability with formulation flexibility to meet the needs of modern, conscious product innovation.
Applications: KLEANSTANT® is suitable for use in make-up removers, facial cleansers, body washes, soaps, and shampoos, including gel-to-milk formats and other hybrid systems.
From Innovation to Industry Impact
KLEANSTANT® exemplifies Kaffe Bueno’s approach to ingredient innovation: combining circular chemistry with functional performance. The ingredient was officially launched at in-cosmetics Global 2024 in Paris, marking a new benchmark for surfactants developed through upcycling and green chemistry.
Bringing Potassium Coffeeate to market reflects not only technical innovation, but also a shift in how formulators and brand's view waste-derived ingredients.
“We believe that upcycled ingredients shouldn’t require trade-offs,” Franco added. “KLEANSTANT® offers a way to meet sustainability goals without compromising on efficacy or formulation elegance.”
This recognition also ties into Kaffe Bueno’s We Are Nature initiative, an ongoing effort to reshape how the beauty industry views nature, sustainability, and performance. Rooted in the belief that humans and nature are inherently connected, it highlights ingredients like KLEANSTANT® as proof that high-performance beauty can emerge from upcycled, natural sources without compromise.
Recognised by Leading Experts at ICI
Judged by a panel including representatives from BPOM RI, BRIN, leading dermatologists, and cosmetic R&D specialists, the ICI Best Ingredients Awards celebrate technical excellence, innovation, and market relevance. Kaffe Bueno was proud to accept the award in Jakarta alongside regional distribution partner Maha Chemicals.
About Kaffe Bueno
Kaffe Bueno is a Danish bioscience company dedicated to upcycling coffee by-products into functional ingredients for cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and functional foods. Committed to sustainability and innovation, Kaffe Bueno’s mission is to unlock the full health potential of coffee while contributing to a circular, zero-waste economy.
Kaffe Bueno is the first and only company unlocking coffee’s full health, technological and economical potential. It inaugurated the world’s first biorefinery, in Denmark, in 2023.
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