Analytical method for the determination of arabica/robusta composition in roasted coffee blends

# Record card
149
Thematic areas
Agrifood
Agrifood / Food quality & safety
Agrifood / Nutrition & health
Description

Direct quantification of the percentage of arabica in roasted and ground coffee blends of arabica/robusta by High Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR), in solution and multivariate statistical analysis. Particularly, the metabolites content present in water extracts of coffee is analyzed and compared with NMR data of our database. This latter includes data concerning several roasted and ground arabica/robusta coffee blends from different geographical origin and with different roasting degrees, with arabica composition ranging between 0 and 100% in weight. A statistical regression protocol performed on NMR data allows to predict the percentage of arabica in roasted and ground coffee blends of unknown composition.

Business fields
Agrifood
Industry
Type of innovation
Service/know how innovation
Description of innovative features / Competitive advantages

The proposed method allows to monitor different classes of chemical compounds within a single experiment, obtaining a metabolic profile of the roasted coffee blends analyzed. This represents an advantage in the prediction of the percentage of arabica compared to chromatographic techniques that evaluate the arabica/robusta composition by monitoring single compounds such as 16-O-methylcafestol (present in robusta in variable amount based on the geographical origin and in a small amount in arabica) or D-5-avenasterol (present in both arabica and robusta but in a larger amount in the latter) which could be added or subtracted. Furthermore, our database including coffee blends of different geographical origins and different roasting degrees, presents a natural heterogeneity that mediates metabolic differences attributable to both provenance and roasting conditions of coffee.

Reference market
Incremental innovation
Impacts on existing markets
Development stage
Industrialization
TRL
8
9
Advantages
New product/process/service/technology
Patented technology
Yes
Country/ies

Italy

Technology validation/demonstration
External validation
Market positioning
Italian
European
International
Partner required
Enteprise
Cooperation in national /european / international project

Information
For more information and/or to be put in contact with the Research Team, please contact the Project Manager:

Barbara Angelini - Project Manager
CNR - Unità Valorizzazione della Ricerca
Phone number 06.49932415
E-mail barbara.angelini@cnr.it