Geographic origin differentiation of Philippine civet coffee using an electronic nose

Abstract

An increasing interest in geographical indication of origin has emerged to achieve legal protection of specialty coffee in international market. Civet coffee which is considered as the most expensive and best specialty coffee in the world, is one of the important indigenous export products of the Philippines. Thus, geographical origin differentiation of Philippine civet coffee and their control coffee beans (not eaten by civet) using electronic nose (E-nose) was performed. The E-nose instrument was based on six semiconductor metal oxide (SMO) sensor array. Results showed that the sensors exhibited different responses towards civet coffees and non-civet (control) coffees of different provenance. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Heirarchical cluster analysis (HCA) demonstrated a clearly separated civet coffees from their control beans. The cluster separation among civet coffee samples indicated that geographic origins dictate the aroma and flavor variations in coffee. This remarkable performance of E-nose provides proof that it is an excellent tool for authentication of the provenance of civet coffee and non-civet coffee samples.