Coffee is one of the most traded food commodities and one of the most consumed beverages being appreciated by consumers not only for its organoleptic properties, but also for the physiological effects. However, a large part of coffee production is concentrated in relatively low-income countries whilst the transformation and the consumption of coffee products generally takes place in high-income countries, mainly the EU and USA. This imbalance among actors in the supply chain makes the social and economic impacts of coffee of critical importance. The fragile supply chain, together with the need to improve the economic sustainability of bean production — particularly in the light of climate change — drives the need for greater research and technological innovation about the safety and quality of coffee and valorization of coffee by-products.

Coffee goes through a number of critical processes until it becomes a beverage. Along with coffee bean origin, post-harvest processes and other transformations, especially roasting and beverage preparation methods, are very important in determining sensory properties, nutritional characteristics, antioxidant activities, and volatile and non-volatile compounds of coffee. Coffee quality also considers the control of contaminants in both green and roasted coffee. Together with these, the concentration of caffeine and its dependence on bean origin, variety, altitude, and post-harvesting processes, must be considered in order to get low-caffeine coffee that avoids chemical treatment of green beans that may lead to a reduction in sensory and nutritional qualities.

Therefore, in order to produce high quality coffee in a sustainable manner enhancing healthy benefits, it is necessary to carefully examine the post-harvest conditions and to determine the optimum processes. In addition, there is a need to valorize coffee by-products along the entire supply chain that are often rich in high-value nutritional compounds. Green and mild processing technologies should be considered to valorize by-products in order to preserve their nutritional values, functionalities, and to ensure their usability in food applications.

This Research Topic aims to investigate new methods, processes and technologies both to detect the quality of coffee in the process from the green bean to the beverage and to valorize the by-products. We therefore welcome research and review articles covering themes such as the following:

• Comprehensive investigation of the effects of traditional or different roasting and beverage preparation methods, or their combined effect on the quality, sensory properties, bioactive components and safety of both the coffee bean and coffee brews;
• Determination of discriminant compound markers to identify both origin, post-harvesting processes and roasting levels that could contribute in the classification of high quality coffee;
• Extraction of high biological value compounds from coffee wastes using conventional and non-conventional methods and investigation of the use of coffee by-products in food technology.
• Strategies to increase the quality of both green and roasted coffee
• Emerging developments in the nutritional value of coffee and coffee by-products

Topic Editor Dr. Ilario Mennella is employed by Soremartec SA. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject.

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