New technologies and strategies to preserve roasted coffee beans in order to reduce food waste

Coffee is one of the world's most traded products. Thanks to the roasting process, the coffee beans develop an important flavour and the aromatic components must be preserved to guarantee the brewing process and the beverage production.
The bean-to-cup household coffee machines are equipped with systems able to extend the coffee aroma: 
De' Longhi has already developed and tested systems able to preserve the coffee beans avoiding waste production and capability to extend the shelf life of the roasted coffee beans, and we see on ONFOODS project the right communities to study the complex phenomena and develop the innovative storage solutions for the coffee beans.

The research activities will regard the role of packaging materials and storage solutions to reduce coffee waste production in domestic appliances in order to develop and select different solutions for storing roasted coffee beans and detecting the freshness/aroma of the product with a smart sensors/device. Different solutions will be developed to extend the shelf life of roasted coffee beans, also by measuring and defining the freshness index. This activity will also investigate the modeling of the shelf-life of the roasted coffee product considering the different origins, from the botanic point of view, origins, varieties, etc. of the coffee beans.

• Knowledge acquisition, testing and comparing different storage solutions, packaging materials and strategies of identification to preserve aromatic molecules of roasted coffee beans. The best solutions may support the shelf life extension, avoiding waste production and guarantee the high quality of the coffee in your cup. 
• Identification of possible strategies to reduce the environmental impact of the coffee appliance during the use phase.