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| Titel |
Isotopes as tracers of the main environmental factors that contribute to the specificity of the green coffee bean |
| VerfasserIn |
Carla Rodrigues, Rodrigo Maia, Marion Brunner, Marta Pimpão, Loren Gautz, Thomas Prohaska, Cristina Máguas |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2011
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 13 (2011) |
| Datensatznummer |
250057839
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| Zusammenfassung |
| World coffee production – approximately 70% arabica (Coffea arabica) and 30% robusta
(Coffea canephora) – recurrently shows large annual fluctuations. The enormous
variation in annual coffee output by the leading producer Brazil, as a result of recurring
climatic calamities (frosts and droughts) has had a major impact on world coffee
supply and market prices. Climate alterations influence coffee production with
considerable impact at socioeconomic level, as coffee production may be related with
sustainability and fair-trade projects. Moreover, in the last 10 years, a range of alternative
coffee trade networks have emerged, focusing on notions of ‘quality’, ‘place’ and
‘nature’. Several analytical techniques have been applied to determine the geographical
origin of the green and roasted coffee beans. Preliminary studies indicate that mass
spectrometry analytical techniques for multi-element and isotope ratio analysis are
powerful tools for the discrimination of the geographical origin of coffee (Rodrigues,
Máguas & Prohaska, 2010; Serra et al., 2005). These studies show that the elemental
and isotopic composition of the coffee bean depends on where the coffee plant is
grown.
The general aim of this work is to evaluate the relevance of multi-elemental composition
along with carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and strontium isotope ratios for the
discrimination of the geographical origin of the green coffee bean. The results obtained were
combined to define the best multi-element and multi-isotope approach for the differentiation
of coffee producing regions/countries. Moreover, a case-study with coffees from Hawaii
allowed to study in greater detail how different environmental factors (altitude, distance to the
sea, volcanic activity) are reflected by the isotopic composition of the coffee bean and
how this may help to determine its origin. Additionally, a scale-down study was
performed, from the ‘bulk’ green coffee bean to a specific compound extracted
from the bean, caffeine. Isotope ratio analysis of this important alkaloid indicates
that the green coffee bean is a possible ‘ecological proxy’, for coffee plant water
relations.
Key-words: isotopes, green coffee bean, caffeine, geographical origin, ecological
proxy
Rodrigues, C., Máguas, C., & Prohaska, T. (2010). Strontium and oxygen isotope
fingerprinting of green coffee beans and its potential to proof authentication of coffee. Eur
Food Res Technol.
Serra, F., Guillou, C. G., Reniero, F., Ballarin, L., Cantagallo, M. I., Wieser, M., Iyer, S.
S., Héberger, K., & Vanhaecke, F. (2005). Determination of the geographical origin of green
coffee by principal component analysis of carbon, nitrogen and boron stable isotope ratios.
Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 19, 2111-2115. |
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