New technologies and strategies to preserve roasted coffee beans and reduce food waste

Coffee is one of the most traded products in the world. Thanks to the roasting process, the green coffee beans develop an important flavour and the aromatic components must be preserved to guarantee the brewing process and the production of the beverage. There are different solutions for roasted coffee beans (sealed with a lid only, packaged under vacuum, etc...): coffee machines are often equipped with a tank (sometimes removable) to contain the coffee beans to be ground. The purpose of this container is to reduce the degradation of the aroma (preservation), to reduce the oxidation process and to protect the beans from external contamination.
Our task is to study the complex phenomena, identify innovative solutions for preserving the coffee beans according to the design of the coffee machine, and study the correlation between the dose of coffee powder, the shelf life and the final quality of the brewed coffee. This strategy makes it possible to optimize the amount of ground coffee used per serving, thus reducing coffee waste (used coffee grounds).

• Investigation about aromatic molecules from roasted coffee beans.
• Investigation about different storage solutions for roasted coffee beans, and the effects of material/composition on the coffee tank to preserve aromatic components and guarantee safety to the consumer.
• Study a technological solution that allows control of the quality of the coffee beans and manage the coffee powder dose to reduce food waste, and perform better the coffee extraction.

• Deep knowledge acquisition about molecules and science beyond the roasted coffee beans and aromatic molecules.
• Testing and comparing different storage solutions.
• Definition of new process parameters or algorithms for coffee brewing to increase coffee extraction efficiency.