Acrylamide

Acrylamide is a chemical compound which is naturally formed from sugars and amino acids in starchy foods such as bread, potatoes and biscuits, when cooked in the oven, grilled, fried or roasted at high temperatures (120-150 °). It does not only concern industrial processing but also home-made processing: for example when we toast bread in the oven to make bruschetta, but also when we fry french fries in boiling oil. Is called "Maillard reaction" and gives greater taste and aroma to the food, associated with its roasting. Being a natural process it is therefore virtually impossible to reduce it to zero.

EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) experts have confirmed that acrylamide in food can increase the risk of developing cancer in consumers for all age groups but at the same time ingredients, processing and cooking methods can significantly influence the level of the compound to which we are exposed.

It would therefore be incorrect to turn this due attention into alarm. The human being, in fact, is omnivorous and precisely this characteristic, encouraged by all nutritional guidelines, ensures that the intake of foods containing acrylamide is balanced in the overall food choices.

An example: le Wholemeal flours develop more acrylamide in cooking than refined flours. But it has also been proven, thanks to rigorous studies on large numbers of subjects, that prefer wholemeal flours and derivative products has a positive impact on overall health, both immediately and in the long term.

The EU Regulation 2017/2158 has established mitigation measures and reference levels for reducing the presence of acrylamide in food. These are largely common sense indications, applicable in some cases also to the domestic environment as well as the industrial one.

Some points that emerge from the EU Regulation regarding coffee

1. longer cooking at lower temperatures reduces the overall acrylamide content;
2. the acrylamide level can be reduced with rapid post-firing cooling which ensures a sudden drop in temperature;
3. the Robusta variety develops more acrylamide than Arabica;
4. the acrylamide content in soluble preparations is higher than in ground coffee.

Our experience, spanning over 70 years, tells us that many of these points have always been part of the good production practices taught to us by our ancestors.

That said, what is the reality of the sector that we see every day? Let's tackle the topic point by point.

Point 1: The toasting

The dark roasting allows roasters to choose beans with many defects and hide them at the end of the process. A grain is more defective and cheaper. But it is also less good, positive for the palate and for health.

The vast majority of common coffees and almost all budget priced coffees have dark roast. A coffee full of defects, with a medium roast would be undrinkable.

This is why it is better to choose medium toasts. They require much more attention and search for the right bean with fewer defects because they would not be covered by the degree of roasting and would be exposed.

In addition to a discussion of "degree of roasting", addressed in the previous paragraph, there are also to be considered temperature and duration of the process. The dominant trend among industrial coffee roasters and not in the last decades - daughter of the obsessive optimization of industrial production processes and of the minimization of production waste - it goes in a completely different direction than the recommendations above.

Progressive contraction of roasting times with a significant increase in temperatures. This has some benefits for roasters:

• weight loss reduction between green and roasted coffee, should be about 20% (can reach 5%);
• smoothing out some defects in poorly selected low-quality Robusta coffee;
• speeding up the slow maturing process of the coffee, which therefore becomes almost superfluous.

 

We what we do: we have always been supporters of medium, slow and low temperature roasting, to enhance the aromatic notes of the coffee and protect the organoleptic qualities of the product. We have an average weight loss of around 18-20% and a curing time that varies from 2 weeks (in summer) to over 1 month in winter.

Point 2: Cooling

At the end of the roasting process the beans reach a very high temperature (between 200 and 220 ° C), so it is necessary to cool them quickly to obtain the desired degree of roasting. A slow and inadequate cooling can cause the excessive loss of aromas and body.

As a result, industrial roasting trends have a strong risk for those who practice them. Despite the technologies that monitor the parameters, strong roasting can easily "get out of hand" ruining the coffee batch.

 

But here comes a little trick. Water is introduced into the roasting drum just before the coffee is discharged and poured into the cooling tank. When the water meets the high temperature of the cylinder it turns into water vapor. The latter, coming into contact with the beans, rapidly and drastically reduces the temperature.

 

This method has several positive effects for the portfolios of some roasters:

• reduction in weight loss between green and roasted coffee, the coffee re-incorporates moisture and therefore increases in weight;
• speeding up the cooling process = speeding up the production process
• avoiding the risk of damage to the game

 

 

Too bad that, during roasting, the coffee creates an enormous amount of compressed gas (up to 20 bar pressure). The transformation that is triggered by these gases in the cells of freshly roasted coffee is essential for the creation of aromas.

Cooling with water means dispersing them because the humidity opens the pores of the cells, making them escape.

 

We want to preserve all our aromas for the palate, protecting the health of our customers: for this we cool with air and bring them to room temperature within 3 minutes.

Point 3: The Robusta variety

Claiming that the Robusta variety develops - on average - more acrylamide than Arabica, it corresponds to reality.

However, it is important to explain to people that saying "Robusta variety" means talking about a category that includes dozens of producer countries located in the intertropical belt. For each of these countries, the cultivation areas and methods can give very different results, as well as the subsequent selection and drying operations.

It is therefore better to avoid generalizing too much, to demonstrate this we bring some practical examples:

1. in some Central American countries such as Guatemala and Nicaragua, famous for their high quality Arabica beans, excellent qualities of Robusta are also produced (some of them counted among Specialty Coffees);
2. some varieties of Arabica are poorly selected and lead to a not very homogeneous result in roasting, some others have comparable prices with selected Robusta coffees;
3. from our laboratory analyzes we have noticed significant differences in terms of the presence of post-roasting acrylamide between the varieties of Robusta from different geographical areas.

Thus demonizing the Robusta in the strict sense makes very little sense in fact, from our point of view, instead, we try to purchase only selected Arabica and Robusta qualities as homogeneous as possible, creating balanced blends that respect the legal limits as a whole.

Conclusions

Is the Italian consumer therefore subject to the risk of drinking low quality coffee?

Yes, specifically we are victims of two things, misconceptions of what a coffee is and a lot of coffee to save. A lot of quantity, little quality. That's why it's important to choose which side to take!

Claudio Borghi