In the actual economic context, the agro-food economy is focused on the consumer demands regarding food quality and security. The coffee supply chain is experiencing an increasing interest for controls on coffee quality, in order to maintain its high economic value and to protect the consumer from frauds.
The general objective of the project is to develop an analysis model for the characterization of the geographical origin of coffee beans, based on a metabolomic approach for the evaluation of both aromatic-volatile and polar-non-volatile fractions.
We developed two different analytical methods: the first aims to classify the origin of coffee based on the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profile using a PTR-ToF-MS technique, the second, based on the HPLC-ESI-HRMS, aims to study the non-volatile profile. Through the VOC profiles merged to multivariate statistical analysis it has been possible to distinguish clearly the origin of coffee samples proving that the PTR-ToF-MS is a fast and valuable tool for coffee authentication. With the second approach, we performed a metabolic fingerprint of coffee samples with more than 120 characteristic metabolites and, coupled to a bioinformatic approach, we highlighted that the non-volatile profiles of the Arabica considerably differed within the countries due to their pedoclimatic characteristics.
Date: Saturday, June 24, 2023
Time: 2:15pm - 3:15pm EET
Location: Lecture Room 2
Presenters:
Massimo Battaglia
Coffee Research Leader, Accademia del Caffè Espresso
Massimo Battaglia is Coffee Research Leader at Accademia del Caffè Espresso. Tropical agronomist and over 20 years spent in coffee origin countries, Massimo Battaglia is in charge of the research project on coffee traceability, developed with the University of Florence, ENEA and ACE (Alliance for coffee excellence). He is also the reference person for all projects developed with associations and partners at origins, and institutions and universities at national and international level.
Cosimo Taiti
Researcher, University of Florence
Cosimo Taiti is currently a research fellow at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry. He has a long well-documented experience in the characterization of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plants and or food matrices. He has focused his research also on the role of VOCs in plant-plant and plant animal systems for the purpose of communication studies through volatile substances. Likewise he performs ecology studies about plants' ability to purify soil and indoor air. He performed several lessons for students for the master “Futuro Vegetale” and has been involved in many plants or food research projects. He is the author of over 50 scientific articles on plant and food topics.