Packaging and coffee aroma: a kinetic evolution

Coffee is a complex and “evolutive” food whose sensory quality is affected by endogen chemical reactions involving the characteristic reactive aroma components, pH and water activity and the external effects of temperatures, storage and packaging. Packaging has an important influence in coffee processing, storage and marketing. Design and development of new packaging fitting environmental sustainability have nowadays become almost compulsory. It is therefore necessary that industry controls possible interactions between their coffee products and packaging because the latter also influence the sensory quality of the product during time [1-2]. The shelf-life is defined in function of a tolerable decrease of the coffee quality and determines the time limit within which the progressive reactive events produce not perceivable modifications of its sensory properties and/or it is still acceptable in terms of safety of use [3-4]. This study aims to define the evolution of the coffee aroma stored under different conditions (stressed and ambient) as a function of the packaging used through analysis by HS-SPME-GC-MS, looking at the chemical markers of coffee degradation that could be useful to describe a prediction model of coffee shelf-life.