Strategies to guarantee the quality of the beverage in Colombian Coffees
Colombia has a great tradition as a coffee producing and exporting country and it is the world's premier producer of mild coffee. Today coffee represents 20 percent of the country's foreign exchange income. Although the quality of the exported coffee has always been assessed and controlled, by the coffee authorities, avoiding that poor quality coffees reach the foreign market, today Colombia's purpose is to enhance the coffee quality controls, in order to improve the competitiveness in the international trade market and to satisfy the consumers with a safe and high quality product. It is known that microorganisms are involved in coffee processing but improper practices, mainly during the drying and storage steps can lead to spoilage, taints and growth of mycotoxin-producing filamentous fungi. Realizing the importance of these factors, several research studies have been carried out in Colombia related to the impact of coffee processing practices and conditions on coffee quality, such as the immature harvested beans, over fermentation processes, storage of wet parchment coffee and inadequate drying. The relationship between OTA formation and quality of coffee depending on the moisture content of the coffee beans, and on the relative humidity and temperature of storage have been also considered. The latest results of these studies are now available to the coffee farmers and extension personnel in Technical brochures which emphasize the good coffee processing practices and the importance of carefully drying for the prevention of deterioration of coffee quality. Colombia is working on the transference of the technological knowledge to the farmers through recommendations, courses and advisory visits. This year it has been planned to begin a sampling work in selected coffee farms, representative of the kinds of farms in the regions of study, in order to know the microorganisms involved in coffee processing in Colombia, and also to identify the hazards and critical control points in coffee processing related to OTA formation.
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| Format: | biblioteca |
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Trieste (Italia) ASIC
2001
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| Subjects: | COFFEA, CAFE, ALIMENTOS, CONTAMINACION, TECNOLOGIA DE LOS ALIMENTOS, CALIDAD, CONTENIDO DE HUMEDAD, OCRATOXINAS, CONTROL DE CALIDAD, COLOMBIA, |
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