How 1 in 10 posh coffees contain cheaper beans

IT is the premium coffee bean, costing around £5 for a pound.

But a tenth of coffees labelled ‘100 per cent Arabica’ in fact contain inferior Robusta beans, a study has found.

Among those tested from the UK high street, one coffee claiming to be 100 per cent Arabica was one fifth Robusta.

Arabica beans make less bitter coffee but are more costly because of how they are processed and the fact that the plants are not as hardy as the Robusta variety.

It is difficult to find rogue Robusta in a sample labelled Arabica, especially after roasting and grinding, but British researchers have had success with a new, more accurate method of testing.

Dr Kate Kemsley, from the Quadram Institute, formerly known as the Institute of Food Research, led a study that tested 60 coffee samples sold around the world, including 22 in Britain.

It found six of the 60 contained Robusta beans but the researchers believe up to a fifth of Arabicas sold worldwide may be fraudulent. One of the ‘suspicious’ samples bought in the UK contained 21.7 per cent Robusta beans.

The tests were done with a new technique using radio waves and magnetic fields to obtain data about the coffees’ molecular composition. The study was published in the journal Food Chemistry.