'Healthier' coffee with AFS patent
roasting method, HealthyRoast, which boosts polyphenols levels in
brewed coffee. Antioxidant-enriched coffee could be available in
retailers next year.
Forget the caffeine boost, food scientists in the US that developed a new method to send the antioxidant content in brewed coffee soaring have now received a patent for the process.
Researchers from the US company Applied Food Sciences have come up with HealthyRoast, a coffee roasting method that boosts polyphenols - which mop up harmful free radicals - levels in brewed coffee. With the patent cleared, health conscious consumers could expect to see antioxidant enriched coffee on the supermarket shelves next year.
Essentially, the process involves pre-soaking green coffee beans - inherently rich in antioxidants - before roasting and then quenching the roasted beans with the liquid in which the coffee beans were first pre-soaked.
According to Applied Food Sciences, the taste remains the same. "Professional tasters, or 'cuppers', have commented that they can't taste a difference," said Loretta Zapp, CEO of AFS.
The same company announced last month that its Green Coffee Antioxidant product derived from raw green coffee beans contains greater than 50 per cent pure chlorogenic acid - an enzyme involved in simple and complex carbohydrate metabolism.
