Qualidade de cafés especiais armazenados em atmosfera modificada

Abstract

Coffee is an important part of Brazilian agribusiness. In the 2019/20 crop year alone, more than 40 million 60 kg bags were exported from Brazil and foreign exchange earnings were over US$ 6.5 billion. The quality of coffee begins in the field, and goes through the choice of varieties, the harvesting and post-harvest processes applied, and continues to storage and transport. The delicate notes found in specialty coffee reflect the final expression of a great chain of physical and chemical transformations that link the beans to the cup. Grain storage aims to store a product for a certain period of time. However, factors such as quality and metabolism of the grain itself, initial water content, environmental conditions in the warehouse, type of packaging and storage time influence the maintenance of these characteristics, which may cause degradation of chemical compounds, which negatively affects the sensory aspects of the grain. beverage. However, the use of high-barrier packaging or cold storage practices are alternatives that can ensure grain quality during storage. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the behavior of raw coffee beans from different processing and quality levels, packaged in impermeable packaging and stored in a refrigerated environment. The special coffees (Coffea arabica L.) were provided by Syngenta. The coffees were previously sampled and characterized according to the beverage, with two batches (one of natural coffee and the other of pulped coffee) evaluated with a grade of 82 points, and another batch of natural coffee evaluated with a grade of 84 points. They were packaged in two types of packaging: packaging permeable to moisture and gases; and packaging impermeable to gases, humidity and light. Grain storage was carried out in ambient conditions without temperature control and in a refrigerated environment. Samples were coded by storage conditions (A = ambient; R = Refrigerated), type of processing (Dry way = N; Wet way = CD), beverage quality (82 or 84), type of packaging (High barrier = AB ; Jute = J) and storage time (0, 6 or 9). The concentration of CO2 inside the packaging was measured, physical analyzes (water content, color, apparent specific mass), chemical (fatty acid profile, organic acids, volatile compounds, bioactive compounds) and sensory analyzes of the coffees were carried out. According to the results, there is less variation in the water content and color of grains stored refrigerated and in high barrier packaging. Lesser variation in the concentration of organic acids, fatty acids and chlorogenic acids are also observed in samples packaged in high-barrier packaging or stored in a refrigerated environment. The results of the sensory analysis point out that the RAB samples do not show defect notes in most treatments after 6 or 9 months of storage. The results are promising and reflect better grain storage conditions given by the quality of the packaging or temperature conditions over time.