Novel analytical methodologies for detection of adulteration in ground coffee and coffee oil

• Grant number: 18/11095-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2018
• End date: September 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Helena Redigolo Pezza
• Grantee: Maria Izabel Milani
• Supervisor: Luis E. Rodriguez-Saona
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Ohio State University, Columbus, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/14773-0 - Development of methods to detect adulteration in roasted coffee and oil coffee, BP.DR

Abstract

Brazil is the world's leader producer of coffee seeds; in 2017, the production was about 1.7 billion tons. Unfortunately, coffee is a known target of adulteration with different types of materials such as corn, soy, barley and coffee husks. In the last years, the coffee oil, a relative new product derived from raw coffee seeds, has been gaining space in the cosmetic and medicinal industries, due to its hydrating and healing properties. It has a great number of beneficial substances and has a higher added value than coffee itself. Therefore, similarly to coffee seeds, it is expected that coffee oil may be a subject of adulteration, by different vegetable oils that may be used as adulterants. Vibrational Spectroscopy is the collective term used to describe two analytical techniques: infrared and Raman spectroscopy, and the great deal of these two techniques is that they are easily adapted to portable and handheld instruments which facilitates data acquisition and makes analysis sampler, faster and more inexpensive. (AU)