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The current problems of encapsulated coffee

Security.

Structural composition and Safety Evaluation of capsule Coffee

Usually, the preparation process of encapsulated coffee is to quickly put the standardized ground and roasted coffee powder into a capsule composed of sealing, filter membrane, heat-resistant container, etc., and immediately filled with nitrogen, and its structure is shown in the picture.

Structure and composition of Nestl é Nespresso capsule Coffee

Source: China Industry Information Network

Different kinds of encapsulated coffee have different packaging materials. For example, the cup-shaped heat-resistant capsule shell of the capsule coffee produced by Nestl é is usually made of aluminum, aluminum-polypropylene composite, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyamide and their compounds. the sealing material of the capsule is usually plastic and / or aluminum. and sealed on the capsule shell at high temperature to form a lip-shaped crimping, and the filter membrane is made of porous plastic, fiber and aluminum substrate. The filter membranes of K-fee encapsulated coffee produced by Pacific Coffee Company (Hong Kong) are usually made of thermoplastic materials (such as polypropylene), while the multilayer films of encapsulated coffee produced by MONODOR are usually made of polypropylene, polyethylene and so on. In recent years, there are many patents for the preparation of capsules using biodegradable materials, but generally speaking, the capsule materials of encapsulated coffee are usually made of aluminum, plastics and their compounds, which are used as direct contact packaging of coffee powder. the safety of these materials is worth discussing.

Aluminum has always been regarded as a non-toxic, harmless and safe element without side effects, but modern medicine shows that aluminum can accumulate in the human body and produce chronic toxicity, which has a great impact on the central nervous system and embryonic development. The coffee extract is often weakly acidic, and if an aluminum container is used in the brewing process, aluminum is easy to migrate into the brewed coffee. The results show that the migration of aluminum is related to the brewing mode of coffee. For example: coffee prepared by aluminum mocha oven and coffee prepared by simple extraction, the aluminum content of the former coffee is significantly higher than that of the latter.

However, some encapsulated coffee is packaged with aluminum foil and prepared by high temperature steam extraction. Although there are few studies on the migration of aluminum in the coffee brewed with aluminum capsule coffee, the coffee brewed by this method may have potential safety risks.

In order to increase the ductility and stability of plastic materials in encapsulated coffee shells, plasticizers are often added in the production process, and the commonly used plasticizers are mainly phthalate esters (PAEs). Modern medical and toxicological studies have shown that many kinds of PAEs have great effects on human reproduction, development and immunotoxicity. At present, there are few studies on plasticizer in encapsulated coffee. One of the studies shows that almost all samples contain PAEs plasticizer after solid phase extraction (SPE) by capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPF-GC-MS). It includes dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diisobutyl phthalate (BiBP), di-tert-butyl (DBP) and di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). Among them, the International Center for Research on Cancer (IARC) has listed DEHP as class 2B carcinogens and BBP as class 3 carcinogens.

Safety Evaluation of Coffee Powder of capsule Coffee

Coffee is easy to produce some harmful ingredients in the process of roasting and brewing, the most typical of which are acrylamide (acrylamide), furan (furan) and so on. Coffee beans have high contents of sugar and fat, and Maillard reaction is easy to occur in the process of baking at high temperature, resulting in acrylamide. Acrylamide is a highly water-soluble unsaturated carbonyl compound, which has strong permeation and can quickly enter the body through digestive tract, respiratory tract, skin and mucous membrane, causing chronic poisoning. it has a certain toxic effect on nerve, reproduction, heredity and so on. IARC has listed it as a class 2A carcinogen, so the content of acrylamide in coffee is an important index to evaluate the safety of coffee. In addition to acrylamide, coffee is also prone to furan pollutants due to high temperatures during roasting and brewing. Furan is a kind of small molecular cyclic olefin ether with aromatic flavor and low boiling point (31 ℃), which is easily absorbed by lung or intestine through biofilm, causing tumor or carcinogenesis. IARC has listed furan as a class 2B carcinogen; furan also has anesthetic and weak irritation, causing serious damage to liver and kidney. As a kind of coffee, capsule coffee will inevitably produce harmful components such as acrylamide and furan in the process of roasting and brewing, and because of the particularity of its preparation and brewing methods, the content of harmful components produced by capsule coffee is not only common but also different from that of ordinary coffee. The results show that the content of acrylamide in espresso brewed with encapsulated coffee is related to the type of coffee beans, the degree of roasting and the brewing time.

Similar to regular coffee, when other conditions are the same, coffee brewed with Arabica beans contains half less acrylamide than robusta beans; coffee brewed with deep-roasted beans contains 80% less acrylamide than lightly roasted beans. The difference is that the short-time brewing process of encapsulated coffee can effectively reduce the content of acrylamide compared with long-time brewing coffee such as trickling filter type and pressure type. However, the furan content of espresso brewed with encapsulated coffee is higher than that of coffee brewed with trickle filter. The possible reason is that the high pressure (900-1000 kPa) provided by brewing encapsulated coffee significantly increases the extraction rate of furan from coffee powder than that of 100 kPa brewing. Due to the short brewing time (30 s), the furan did not have enough time to volatilize, so the furan content was higher than that of drip brewing (brewing time 100 s).

Environmental protection

As a kind of high-quality and fast consumer goods, capsule coffee occupies an important position in the whole coffee market, especially in Europe and America. According to The Star News, sales of encapsulated coffee in the United States are growing at more than 100 percent a year, and many offices consume more than five servings of encapsulated coffee products a day, resulting in a large number of discarded capsules. Most of the capsule shells have been mixed with aluminum and plastic in the production process, which can not burn, it is difficult to separate and degrade, which poses a great threat to the environment. At present, many attempts have been made on the recycling of waste capsules, such as: recovery of aluminum from waste capsules; research and development of reusable capsule coffee shell; use of biodegradable packaging materials such as polylactic acid, polyvinyl alcohol and so on. However, there are still many challenges in the actual recovery and disposal process, such as small size, many kinds and complex components of waste capsules, which is not easy to be disposed of uniformly after recycling, and the public awareness is not strong, and the recovery system is difficult to improve. Relevant standards and regulations are not perfect; many enterprises do not have effective means for the treatment and rational use of waste capsules. Therefore, the method of proper disposal of waste capsules needs to be further studied.

Capsule coffee plays an important role in the coffee market because of its superior quality, long shelf life and convenience, but there are some hidden dangers in the safety of coffee powder and its capsule shell. In order to ensure its safety, corresponding measures should be taken in advance. For example: in the preparation of coffee powder, select the appropriate type and ratio of coffee beans, reasonably optimize the baking and brewing conditions; in the selection of capsule shell, select materials that are non-toxic and harmless and meet the requirements, research and development of edible packaging coatings; in the production and processing, to achieve standardized production, strict control of product quality. In addition, improper disposal of abandoned capsule shells will cause environmental pollution and waste of resources. It is of great significance to reduce environmental pollution and improve economic benefits by strengthening publicity, establishing relevant standards and regulations, improving the recycling system of waste capsules and finding degradable capsule materials.