Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Highlights
New strategies and technologies for storage of food commodities to reduce wastes, including modelling and optimization of storage conditions according to different packaging solutions, optimization of the energy consumption in conditioned atmosphere and refrigeration processes (in connection with Spokes 1 and 7).
Original and effective solutions applied to real case studies (M36).
Coffee is one of the most traded products in the world. Thanks to the roasting process, the green coffee beans develop an important flavour and the aromatic components must be preserved to guarantee the brewing process and the production of the beverage. There are different solutions for roasted coffee beans (sealed with a lid only, packaged under vacuum, etc...): coffee machines are often equipped with a tank (sometimes removable) to contain the coffee beans to be ground. The purpose of this container is to reduce the degradation of the aroma (preservation), to reduce the oxidation process and to protect the beans from external contamination.
Our task is to study the complex phenomena, identify innovative solutions for preserving the coffee beans according to the design of the coffee machine, and study the correlation between the dose of coffee powder, the shelf life and the final quality of the brewed coffee. This strategy makes it possible to optimize the amount of ground coffee used per serving, thus reducing coffee waste (used coffee grounds).