Abstract
The quality of coffee is influenced by many factors such as coffee variety, agricultural and
postharvest conditions, roasting parameters, and brewing. The pleasure of drinking coffee may
be affected by off-notes such as burnt, green, earthy, or fermented. Their presence is related to the
variety, fermentation during postharvest processing, or over-roasting of the beans. Sensory expert
panels trained for the evaluation of coffee are able to detect off-notes and select coffees by welldefined
quality criteria. The application of instrumental approaches detecting quality markers related
to the perceived off-notes is shown to be useful to assist sensory panels. This paper describes the
discovery of a new marker compound related to the fermented off-note occasionally perceived in
coffees. The application of untargeted chemometric methods on volatile compounds revealed
correlations between individual compounds and the sensory attribute. The new marker compound
was identified as ethyl formate, which can be measured in the headspace of roasted and ground
coffee by various analytical techniques including online proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 9972-9978 |
Journal | Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry |
Volume | 57 |
Issue number | 21 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- reaction mass-spectrometry
- volatile organic-compounds
- food