ABSTRACT
In recent years, concerns regarding the safety, quality and authenticity of food and valuable crops have become a major challenge in the food industry. Adulterations in many consumer sectors are commonly practised, both intentionally and accidentally. Whereas intentional adulteration involves an illicit act to enhance the value of a product, accidental or unintentional adulteration is often associated with contamination and a lack of proper hygiene during overall processing, resulting in a downgrading of the product’s value. It is therefore essential for the food industry and legislative authorities to detect the fraudulent adulteration of products. Both parties are accountable for establishing quality standards through labelling and the composition of regulations and routine evaluation protocols to circumvent unfair competition among manufacturers as well as to ensure the safety, quality and authenticity of the product for consumers1,2. Consequently, efforts to develop a robust authentication system have been the central focus of food scientists, quality standard agencies and food manufacturers. In this chapter, we will introduce the current issues relating to the adulteration of coffee as well as report on recent progress regarding the quality evaluation and authentication of coffee using a metabolomics approach.
