Abstract

This paper describes current views on the association of coffee consumption with various health factors, and illustrates how the composition of coffee can be engineered through manipulation of the roasting process; the possibility of using this information to improve health-related properties of the beverage is then discussed. It is also noted that although several bioactive compounds have been identified in coffee, there are other poorly defined compounds that may be involved in health effects associated with coffee consumption, and which are difficult to measure and define. In this short review, we consider specifically the antioxidant properties of the beverage, for which a large number of assays have been published. However, such assays produce values that are dependent on the chemical basis of the methodology, and it is considered important to use a platform of analytical assays to obtain a true picture of the antioxidant components the beverage; one such platform based on our own research is described and applied to demonstrating the influence of roasting conditions on different types of antioxidant in the coffee beverage. The contents of other bioactive molecules are also influenced by the roasting conditions, and with appropriate control, the roasting process can be used to optimize the balance of beneficial components and minimize the contents of undesirable components. Unfortunately, at the present time we lack important information that would allow us understand the effects of varying the balance of the various bioactive components, since reports of the health effects of the beverage generally neglect details of both the bean genetics and the various processes that contribute to the beverage composition. Thus although we now have the ability to refine the composition of the coffee beverage to generate products with optimized contents of various specific components, we still lack the basic knowledge of their biological consequences that is needed to develop products with improved abilities to act as functional foods.

Keywords: Coffee; Health; Antioxidants; Roasting; Chlorogenic acids; Melanoidins