I-Corps: Coffee Bean Conversion as a Direct Additive Flavoring to Food and Beverage Products

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development a coffee-sourced food and drink additive product to provide an alternative to conventional methods of achieving coffee flavor. Current methods begin with brewed coffee drink as a food additive precursor while using added chemicals to achieve the desired color and flavor in food and beverage products.

The proposed technology preserves larger amounts of caffeine and antioxidants as compared with current technology, while enhancing key volatile compounds for superior color, flavor, and aroma. The goal is to provide food product companies with a more sustainable, accessible, and healthier alternative to conventional methods for achieving coffee flavor.

The proposed technology may be an attractive option for food product companies as it will help them appeal to consumers that are growing increasingly health and environmentally conscious.

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a technology for conversion of whole roasted coffee beans to achieve coffee flavor in food and beverage products. Current technologies are based on water-extracted brewed coffee that is spray dried, concentrated, or freeze dried. The proposed process involves converting the entire roasted coffee bean into an ultra-ground, one-ingredient flavoring agent that may be used as a direct additive in food and beverage products to achieve coffee flavor with natural coloring.

Unlike current methods for achieving coffee flavor, this process eliminates significant water consumption as well as the spent coffee ground waste stream, making it a sustainable alternative to traditional methods. In addition, the proposed process has been shown to yield maximum nutritional content, enhances key volatile compounds for taste, aroma, and color, and reduces a number of undesirable volatile compounds that result from current processes.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.