MOISTURE CONTENT AND ITS POSSIBLE EFFECT ON TEXTURAL PROPERTIES AND COLOR OF GREEN COFFEA ARABICA

Abstract

Consumption of coffee is still high, and consumers demand high-quality coffee. Quality of coffee is a complex term. Moisture content (mc), water activity (aw), textural features, and the color of green coffee are one of the many attributes of the quality. In the research, we focused on these parameters and analyzed 21 samples of green Coffea arabica from different locations in Central America. Our results proved that moisture content did not exceed 14% in any samples. However, some samples had slightly lower values of moisture content. Water activity ranged from 0.391 to 0.582. Pearson's correlation was fairly positive at 0.70 between mc and aw.

Regarding textural analysis, we focused on hardness and fracturability. In this case, we observed a low negative correlation between water activity and fracturability. This might suggest that the higher the aw (to a certain point), the lower the fracturability. The color parameter shows no significant difference, which might be caused due to the same post-harvest processing (wet processing), which is crucial for obtaining relatively same color quality despite different harvesting locations. Since coffee is a hygroscopic matrix, the results might have great use regarding storage and minimalizing textural changes and color concerning further roasting and grinding.