They obtain an anti-inflammatory derived from coffee

Scientists have managed to obtain soluble powders from the dehydrated pulp of coffee peels, a product with the potential to reduce the risk of chronic pathologies due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Researchers have developed these powders using spray drying, a method with less impact on the environment.

The advance is the work of a team from the Food Sciences Research Institute (CIAL), a joint center of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), in Spain all these institutions. The team is led by Marta B. López-Parra, from CIAL.

“The study demonstrates the validity of a method widely used in the food industry to prepare a product with potential health benefits, since it contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory polyphenols. The process we propose has a lower environmental impact than freeze-drying, commonly used to obtain powders, and is less expensive, so it can be implemented more easily in coffee-producing countries,” explains Dolores del Castillo, from the CIAL research and scientific team.

The soluble powders can be used as an ingredient in instant foods and drinks and as a dietary supplement. Its flavor, with fruity and herbaceous notes, is different from that of coffee drinks made from roasted beans. “The flour that can be manufactured with this product could be used, for example, in the production of gluten-free breads for celiacs,” says Del Castillo.

Likewise, according to these researchers, it can be an alternative for people with sensitivity to caffeine or with a slow metabolism, since the levels of this alkaloid are lower than those contained in drinks based on roasted coffee beans. “The preliminary analysis of consumer preferences that we have carried out within the framework of this study supports their purchase intention and the potential of this product in the market. The product has room for sensory and functional improvement, we are working on it,” adds Del Castillo.

In April 2021, the infusion of dehydrated coffee peel, outer skin and pulp obtained from the berries of the Arabica and Robusta coffee plant species (the two that are consumed of the 124 wild species that exist) , was approved as a safe food by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). In 2022, the EFSA approved dried coffee husks as a novel food and concluded that beverages produced by infusion in water were suitable for consumption.

Coffee peels in the CIAL team’s laboratory. (Photo: Lorenzo Plana)

In the European market there are already products made from coffee husks. Most of the drinks on the market come in sweetened and unsweetened variants, some of them carbonated and mixed with different flavors. Another product marketed based on the peel is kombucha, a fermented drink with an acidic flavor.

The soluble powders proposed by this CIAL group are the result of 14 years of work dedicated to the search for different ways to give a second life to coffee waste, not only with the aim of reducing pollution, but also with the purpose to improve health and promote sustainable agriculture. “The ultimate goal of this research is to contribute to the sustainability of the coffee industry and better understand the health-promoting potential of newly authorized novel foods, such as dried ripe coffee cherry pulp, which can potentially reduce the risk of global chronic diseases”, highlight the authors of the study.

The study is titled “The Impact of the Drying Process on the Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Potential of Dried Ripe Coffee Cherry Pulp Soluble Powder.” And it has been published in the academic journal Foods. (Source: Alda Ólafsson / CSIC)