Looking into individual coffee beans during the roasting process : direct micro-probe sampling on-line photo-ionisation mass spectrometric analysis of coffee roasting gases

A micro-probe (μ-probe) gas sampling device for on-line analysis of gases evolving in confined, small objects by single-photon ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SPI-TOFMS) was developed. The technique is applied for the first time in a feasibility study to record the formation of volatile and flavour compounds during the roasting process within (inside) or in the direct vicinity (outside) of individual coffee beans. A real-time on-line analysis of evolving volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds (VOC and SVOC) as they are formed under the mild pyrolytic conditions of the roasting process was performed. The soft-ionisation mass spectra depict a molecular ion signature, which is well corresponding with the existing knowledge of coffee roasting and evolving compounds. Additionally, thereby it is possible to discriminate between Coffea arabica (Arabica) and Coffea canephora (Robusta). The recognized differences in the roasting gas profiles reflect the differences in the precursor composition of the coffee cultivars very well. Furthermore, a well-known set of marker compounds for Arabica and Robusta, namely the lipids kahweol and cafestol (detected in their dehydrated form at m/z 296 and m/z 298, respectively) were observed. If the variation in time of different compounds is observed, distinctly different evolution behaviours were detected. Here, phenol (m/z 94) and caffeine (m/z 194) are exemplary chosen, whereas phenol shows very sharp emission peaks, caffeine do not have this highly transient behaviour. Finally, the changes of the chemical signature as a function of the roasting time, the influence of sampling position (inside, outside) and cultivar (Arabica, Robusta) is investigated by multivariate statistics (PCA). In summary, this pilot study demonstrates the high potential of the measurement technique to enhance the fundamental knowledge of the formation processes of volatile and semi-volatile flavour compounds inside the individual coffee bean.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2013

Erschienen:

2013

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:405

Enthalten in:

Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry - 405(2013), 22 vom: 28. Sept., Seite 7083-96

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Hertz-Schünemann, Romy [VerfasserIn]
Streibel, Thorsten [VerfasserIn]
Ehlert, Sven [VerfasserIn]
Zimmermann, Ralf [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Coffee
Gases
Journal Article
Volatile Organic Compounds

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 16.04.2014

Date Revised 12.05.2016

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1007/s00216-013-7006-y

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM227338308