Microbial ecology and starter culture technology in coffee processing.

Coffee has been for decades the most commercialized food product and most widely consumed beverage in the world, with over 600 billion cups served per year. Before coffee cherries can be traded and processed into a final industrial product, they have to undergo postharvest processing on farms, which have a direct impact on the cost and quality of a coffee. Three different methods can be used for transforming the coffee cherries into beans, known as wet, dry, and semi-dry methods.

Conducting starter culture-controlled fermentations of coffee beans during on-farm wet processing: Growth, metabolic analyses and sensorial effects.

In this study, the potential use of Pichia fermentans YC5.2 as a starter culture to conduct controlled coffee bean fermentations during on-farm wet processing was investigated. Inoculated fermentations were conducted with or without the addition of 2% (w/v) sucrose, and the resultant microbial growth and metabolism, bean chemistry and beverage quality were compared with spontaneous (control) fermentation.