Coffee fermentation and microbiota

Advances in Fermented Foods and Beverages. http //dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-l-78242-015-6.00021-9 Copyright 2015 Elsevier Lid. All rights reserved 

Coffee plants are cultivated in more than 80 countries around the world, with 70% being produced by smallholder farmers (De Los Santos-Briones Hemfindez-Sotomayor, 2006). More than lOOmillion people in the coffee-growing areas worldwide derive their income directly or indirectly from coffee production (Mishra Slater, 2012). Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of C. arabica (ABIC, 2010 Silva et al., 2013), followed by Colombia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Indonesia, Ethiopia, India and Mexico. Coffee plantations eover about 10.6 million ha of land, mostly in the tropics (Clay, 2004), and the coffee trade has an annual turnover of close to 10 billion US, making it the second most important commodity traded in the world next to petroleum (Silva et al., 2013). 

Dry berries still covered by endocarp and partly by mucilage 

For dry processing, the berries are often left on the coffee plants until overripe before harvesting. The berries are then dried in the sun to a moisture level of about 10-11%. Alternatively, the berries are dried directly after harvest by spreading in a 

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A controlled coffee fermentation process with a controlled microbiota may guarantee a standardized quality and reduce the economic loss for the producer, fii the literature, only a few studies have been published towards the use of starter cultures for coffee fermentations, although the attempt to control coffee fermentation has existed for over 40years. A pectolytic yeast (Agate Bhat, 1966 Avallone et al., 2(X)2) and... 

The microbiota present during the fermentation of coffee beans is dependent on the variety of the plant and bean moisture, processing method, competition of substrates, enzymatic capacity of the colonizing species, their antimicrobial activity and... 

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