CSIR-CFTRI (Central Food Technology Research Institute) has now developed a beverage from coffee leaves. The technology transfer is underway and several food processing industries have evinced interest. The product according to the institute is less in caffeine, rich in polyphenols and acts as antioxidant.
The Mysuru-based CSIR-CFTRI had been working on coffee valorisation since a decade. A couple of research papers have been published on the utilisation of coffee pulp, coffee cherry husk, silver skin parchment husk and spent waste.
“We developed a technology on bio-actives from green coffee with zero waste. In 2012, we wrote review paper on the utilisation of coffee by-products for sustainability and also received award in 2019 for being the best 30 papers in 30 years from Elsevier journal. We extracted anthocyanin from coffee pulp, obtained polyphenols and other biomolecules from coffee wastes," stated Dr Pushpa Murthy, Principal Scientist and Professor, AcSIR, Department of Spice & Flavour Science, CSIR-CFTRI, while speaking to FnB News.
"The process development know-how is ready and very soon we will release the technology for the public domain. Few industries are already waiting for the release for the process." This two year spanning from 2019 to 2021, was project funded by Ministry of Food Processing in 2019 under the development of value-added products from coffee leaves.
For this two-year project, the 5-member research team included a scientist, research scholar, technical officer and project assistant. "The development of the technology was done in the first year but due to Covid pandemic constraints of travel in the state, we could not explore more coffee varieties and regions. But now we are in full swing to scout for more varieties," she added.
“We surveyed mainly Arabica and Robusta from all coffee growing regions in the country covering India like Kodagu, Chikmagalur, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and also a few North-East states. We also are into specific sub-species of Arabica,” she said.
On whether there are similar products in the market, Dr Murthy said that a couple of them that are marketed on Amazon are Arku coffee leaf tea. Globally there are a few developments like for instance the Kutti tea, Kahwa daun from Ethiopia and Indonesia but the preparations modes are different from the institute.
From CSIR-CFTRI perspective of the future developments, Dr Murthy stated, “We are working on innovative coffee processing methods like honey coffee process, carbon maceration and pre treatments for improvement coffee. We have developed starter cultures for coffee processing to obtain quality coffees and would like to make it available for coffee farmers.”