Inferior beans mixed in coffee marked ‘100pc Arabica’ – claim

COFFEE LOVERS are being conned by suppliers fraudulently mixing inferior beans into products labelled 100 per cent Arabica, scientists have learned.

The discovery came to light as a result of British researchers trying out a new and more accurate method of testing coffee quality. As part of the study, members of the team and collaborators around the world bought samples of coffee on sale at shops and supermarkets.

They found that a tenth of high quality products labelled “100% Arabica” contained significant levels of inferior and cheaper “Robusta” beans.

Arabica coffee trades at twice the price of Robusta because of its superior taste. Adulteration with Robusta coffee, which is higher yielding and easier to grow, has always been a potential problem.

But finding rogue Robusta in a sample labelled Arabica is not easy, especially after grinding and roasting. The standard technique detects the fingerprint chemical 16OMC, which is only found in Robusta coffee, but is costly and takes three days.

This makes large scale surveillance impractical. The new method takes only 30 minutes and is sensitive enough to detect just one per cent Robusta in a blended coffee.

Lead scientist Dr Kate Kemsley, from the Quadram Institute, formerly known as the Institute of Food Research, said: “This is an important milestone for detecting fraud in coffee, as one per cent is the generally accepted cut-off between trace contamination, which might be accidental, and more deliberate adulteration for economic gain.”

For the study 60 coffee samples were purchased in countries, including 22 from the UK. Giles Chapman, of the Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit, said: “This piece of work has generated some interesting insights which we will be looking to explore further.”