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Scientists at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) have developed the world’s first certified reference material (CRM) for coffee beans.
CRM enables precise measurement of the content of five nutritional elements (calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and copper) and three harmful elements (lead, mercury and cadmium) in dried fruits.
A document describing CRM in detail was published in Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry.
Reference beans
CRMs are written standards used to maintain the quality of products and verify the accuracy of the analytical methods that test them. Before the work of the KRISS researchers, an international CRM existed for caffeine, but no such material existed for coffee beans.
To fill this gap, the Inorganic Metrology Group at KRISS began by freeze-drying a batch of raw coffee beans, which were then ground and mixed to obtain a homogeneous sample, which was later sterilized by irradiation.
According to Korean national regulations, the allowable limit of total lead content in roasted coffee, instant coffee and other coffee products is 2 mg/kg or less. In Europe, the cadmium content in dried edible coffee beans is regulated at 0.05 mg/kg or less, and the lead content is confined to 1 mg/kg or less. In this novel CRM, the content of lead, mercury and cadmium is about 0.1 mg/kg, which meets the standards of both national and European regulations.
The novel CRM also uses isotope dilution mass spectrometry for measurement. With this method, the KRISS team said they achieved accuracy that is more than three times better than conventional measurement methods used by food testing institutions.
“This achievement represents a technological advance that has the potential to significantly improve the level of quality control for coffee, a popular beverage and also a heavily imported product,” he said. Doctor Kyoung Seok LeeDirector of the Department of Chemical and Biological Metrology.
Lee and his colleagues say their CRM could assist future coffee research. The team’s ambitions don’t stop there. “KRISS will continue to develop CRMs for foods like Korean cabbage, blueberries, and pork to ensure robust and unthreatening dining tables for the nation,” they added.
In South Korea, the per capita coffee consumption among adults is 2.7 times higher than the world average. Coffee imports (raw and roasted beans) reached a record high of 200,000 tonnes in 2022.
Reference: Lee JW, Lim MC, Lim Y, Tegegn GB and Lee KS. Development of a certified coffee bean reference material (KRISS CRM 108-10-023) for elemental analysis. Analytics and biochemistry. 2023. doi: 10.1007/s00216-023-05051-5
This article is a reprint of a press release issued by the National Council for Scientific Research and Technology of South Korea. The material has been edited for length and content.
