Differentiating the geographical origin of Ethiopian coffee using XRF- and ICP-based multi-element and stable isotope profiling

• Published in: Food chemistry 2019-08, Vol.290, p.295-307
• Main Authors: Worku, Mohammed, Upadhayay, Hari Ram, Latruwe, Kris, Taylor, Alex, Blake, William, Vanhaecke, Frank, Duchateau, Luc, Boeckx, Pascal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Carbon Isotopes - chemistry; Coffea - chemistry; Coffea - metabolism; Coffee - chemistry; Coffee origin; Discriminant Analysis; Ethiopia; Isotope Labeling; Mass Spectrometry - methods; Multi-elements; Nitrogen Isotopes - chemistry; Oxygen Isotopes - chemistry; Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission; Stable isotope ratio; X-ray fluorescence spectrometry
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.03.135

•Consumer demand for single-origin specialty coffee increases the risk of fraudulent activities.•Tracing of Ethiopian coffee origins is possible using multi-element and stable isotope profiling.•XRF-based multi-elements with δ13C discriminated coffee origins with high classification accuracy.•XRF technology is a promising tool for coffee profiling with the aim of authenticity detection. To test the potential of different analytical tools to determine the geographical origin of Ethiopian coffee, 103 green arabica coffee samples from four coffee regions in Ethiopia were subjected to multi-elements and δ13C, δ15N and δ18O determinations. Multi-elements were determined by using inductively coupled plasma (ICP)- and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF)-based techniques, and δ13C, δ15N and δ18O were determined by using elemental analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Using linear discriminant analysis, XRF-based multi-elements with and without δ13C appeared to be most effective in discriminating the geographical origin of coffee, giving higher classification accuracy (89 and 86%, respectively) than ICP-based multi-elements with and without stable isotopes (80%, each). These results demonstrate the potential of XRF-based multi-element profiling as a relatively fast and low-cost tool to trace the geographical origin of Ethiopian coffee. All together this study offers the proof of concept for a promising method that, upon standardization, could be used for coffee provenance authentication and fraud detection.