As a commodity, coffee's value often depends on where it was grown. We investigated whether the trace elements present in roasted coffee could be used to provide an elemental fingerprint related to its origin. Ten roasted coffee samples of confirmed origin were analyzed by wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.  Samples were ground, oven-dried at 85 �C overnight and pressed into pellets using cellulose binder. Although a panel of 40 elements was used in the preliminary analysis, it was found that a small subset of these elements could be used to classify all ten samples using principle component analysis (PCA). Four samples of each coffee were analyzed with good agreement between the replicates.  There was excellent clustering of the data in principle component space, indicating that this method could be used for validating a coffee's origin.

Characterizing trace element profiles in coffee samples using wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence

245th National Meeting (2013)

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