Adulteration in roasted coffee: a comprehensive systematic review of analytical detection approaches

Abstract

The presence of impurities in roasted ground coffee interferes with its quality. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) aimed to identify and evaluate the different types of analytical techniques published in the last 20 years for the detection of adulterants in roasted coffee. The SLR was performed on StArt software in three stages: Planning, Executing, and Summarization. Eighty-three studies were selected for this review. The type of coffee most frequently studied was roasted ground coffee and Coffea arabica, while among the adulterants, Coffea canephora, coffee wastes, and corn. There was a trend toward applications of chromatographic, spectroscopic, and multi-adulterant techniques. Suitable techniques to detect/quantify adulterations in coffee and particularly as multi-detection approaches are crucial to improve coffee quality worldwide.