FT-NIR Analysis of Coffee

Introduction

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from ground roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of berries from the coffea plant. Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed daily and it is one of the world’s most popular beverages.  

Among different varieties of Compared to traditional analytical methods, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has the advantages of being nondestructive, rapid, cost effective, and it allows for simultaneous measurements of multiple components. Furthermore, with a calibrated instrument, the end user needs no special skill or spectroscopy knowledge to run the analysis.

genus coffea plants, Arabica and Robusta are the two most economically and commercially important ones. Arabica beans contain lower caffeine content than Robusta beans and Arabica coffee is more flavorful than Robusta coffee. Robusta tends to be bitter and have less flavor, but better body, than Arabica. For these reasons, 75–80% of the coffee produced worldwide is Arabica and around 20% is Robusta. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The dried coffee beans are roasted to varying degrees and blended to obtain different flavors. Roasted beans are ground and brewed with near boiling water to produce coffee as a beverage.

Each year, over 8.8 million tons of coffee is produced worldwide. It is one of the most traded agricultural commodities, and ranks second only to petroleum in terms of dollars traded.  

In this highly competitive industry quality control is a very important factor. From harvesting through processing, quality control tests are required for every stage of coffee production, for example to check the moisture content of green beans, monitor degree of roasting, and test for chemical constituents such as caffeine, chlorogenic acids, trigonelline, fat, sucrose and dry matter of the roasted beans, since these determine the quality of coffee as a beverage. Quality analysis and testing provide the assurance for the best final product.