Strontium and oxygen isotope fingerprinting of green coffee beans and its potential to proof authenticity of coffee

Abstract

Multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) and Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) were applied to combine strontium and oxygen isotope abundance ratios of green coffees from 20 geographical origins in order to evaluate the suitability of these parameters as indicators of geographical origin, which is an important parameter of coffee quality. Results show that both isotopic systems of green coffee beans show a relation to environmental factors that influence processes occurring during the growth of the coffee bean. The final results allowed discrimination of local provenances investigated in this study by principal component analysis (PCA) and exhibit the potential to proof authenticity of world coffees. A good discrimination was obtained especially for coffee of South America region and coffees originating from islands.