1,720,956 research outputs found
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO ENHANCE SUSTAINABILITY, TECHNOLOGY AND QUALITY IN COFFEE ROASTING COMPANIES
No full textQuesta ricerca ha fornito nuovi strumenti e strategie per migliorare la sostenibilità nel settore della tostatura del caffè. Il progetto di tesi ha adottato un approccio multidisciplinare che ha incluso l'adozione di tecnologie innovative e la realizzazione di indagini sulla qualità, con un focus specifico sulla tostatura del caffè. Considerata l'importanza dell'Italia come Paese consumatore ed esportatore di caffè, la fase iniziale dello studio ha valutato le performance di sostenibilità di un campione di torrefattori, rivelando un livello di responsabilità generalmente basso. Per migliorare la trasparenza e la tracciabilità, è stata condotta una revisione della letteratura ed è stato presentato un caso studio su un torrefattore italiano per valutare il potenziale della tecnologia blockchain (BCT). I risultati hanno evidenziato che l'adozione della BCT varia tra i diversi segmenti di qualità del caffè (convenzionale, premium e specialty) in termini di profondità della tracciabilità, tipo di blockchain e coinvolgimento degli stakeholder. Pertanto, è essenziale sviluppare strategie personalizzate basate sulla tecnologia BCT per ottimizzarne il valore per i diversi segmenti di mercato. Questo studio ha anche esaminato l'efficienza energetica della tostatura del caffè e ha proposto l'applicazione della BCT per la registrazione di dati relativi alla sostenibilità ambientale. Gli esperimenti condotti su C. canephora a tostatura media ottenuta con diverse tempistiche hanno permesso di confrontare i livelli di acrilammide, gli attributi sensoriali e i profili metabolomici e volatilomici. La tostatura più veloce è stata caratterizzata da un minor consumo energetico, livelli di acrilammide conformi e caratteristiche sensoriali favorevoli. Questo lavoro ha sottolineato l'importanza di integrare la sostenibilità nelle pratiche di tostatura del caffè, promuovendo una maggiore responsabilità aziendale, l'adozione di nuove tecnologie e l'ottimizzazione dei processi di tostatura. Inoltre, ha posto le basi per la realizzazione di una guida tecnica alla sostenibilità per il settore del caffè.This research aimed to provide new insights and strategies to enhance sustainability in the coffee roasting sector. A multidisciplinary approach was adopted, encompassing technology implementation and quality investigations, with a focus on coffee roasting. Given the importance of Italy as a major coffee consumer and exporter, the initial phase of the study assessed the sustainability performance of a panel of roasters, revealing a generally low level of commitment. To enhance transparency and traceability, a comprehensive literature review and a case study of an Italian roaster were conducted to evaluate the potential of blockchain technology (BCT). The findings indicated that BCT implementation varied across coffee quality segments (conventional, premium, and specialty) in terms of traceability depth, blockchain type, and stakeholder involvement. Therefore, customised BCT strategies are essential to optimise its value for different market segments. This study also examined energy efficiency in coffee roasting, proposing the application of BCT for environmental sustainability accounting. Experiments involving C. canephora roasted at a medium degree through different speeds enabled the comparison of acrylamide levels, sensory attributes, and metabolomic and volatilomic profiles. Fast roasting resulted in lower energy consumption, compliant acrylamide levels, and favourable sensory characteristics. This research underscored the importance of integrating sustainability into coffee roasting practices through improved corporate responsibility, digital technologies, and optimized roasting processes, and laid the groundwork for a technical sustainability guide for the coffee sector
Beyond aroma: A sustainability performance analysis of Italian coffee roasting companies
Full text linkCoffee consumption is becoming increasingly prevalent among a growing number of consumers worldwide. Despite ranking seventh in coffee consumption, Italy is the global coffee export leader, with almost 1000 coffee roasting companies across the country. As a product subject to increasing interest in sustainability, numerous studies address the economic, social and environmental challenges affecting coffee production. However, only a few evaluate the sustainability performance of roasting companies in consuming countries. This study examines the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in business strategy to provide an overview of sustainability performance among Italian roasting companies. The analysis encompasses 78 sustainability practices across 49 businesses and assesses their communication to stakeholders. Furthermore, factors such as company size and specialty coffee sale were investigated for their influence on sustainability performance. The findings reveal a low commitment to sustainability within the Italian coffee sector, with 83.7% of companies in the first two stages of the five-stage CSR assessment model. Although there is an interest in addressing product safety, quality, and consumer relations, responsible sourcing is often relegated to suppliers or voluntary sustainability standards. Communication is not effective, as more than half of the companies did not provide sustainability information on their websites. In this sample, the commitment to sustainability was directly related to the size of the business, and the same relationship was observed for roasters selling specialty coffees
Acrylamide: impact of precursors concentration, origin, post‐harvesting process and roasting level in high‐quality arabica and Robusta coffee
Full text linkOrigin of coffee, precursors concentration, post-harvesting processes and commercial roasting degrees were evaluated for their impact on acrylamide content in roasted coffee. Forty Seven Specialty Arabica and 7 high-quality Robusta green coffee samples were analysed to determine sugars, asparagine and Aw. Acrylamide was quantified on light, medium and dark roasted samples. In green coffee, glucose and fructose content resulted lower after wet and honey processes, no remarkable differences were found for sucrose and asparagine. In all samples, the content of asparagine was generally lower than what provided in previous works. Acrylamide concentration never exceeded the limit of 400 μg kg−1 in Arabica samples and it does once in Robusta, it peaked between light and medium roasting, and it was higher in Robusta. Moreover, it was lower in honey coffee than in others. Acrylamide correlated with asparagine in Robusta, while with monosaccharides and Aw in dry and honey Arabica. Coffee Origin impacted on precursors and acrylamide
Multi-Omics and Sensory Analysis of Coffea canephora: Assessing the Impact of Roasting Speed on Safety and Energy Efficiency
Full text linkCoffee consumption is expected to steadily rise in the next few years, with an increasing incidence of Coffea canephora on the market. To date, consumers are demanding high-quality and healthy beverages produced in an environmentally respectful manner. The study aimed to determine the optimal combination of acrylamide formation, sensory quality, and energy efficiency for blockchain-driven environmental accounting during the roasting process of C. canephora of different cups and market quality. Coffee was roasted in a professional 5 kg drum roaster at three speeds (fast, intermediate, and slow) and profiles, resulting in a medium roast degree. The quantification of acrylamide complied with the European legal benchmark across all roasting speeds, enabling a qualified panel to perform a sensory analysis of coffees in an espresso brew, including aroma and taste attributes. The chemical fingerprint of coffee was initially investigated through an untargeted metabolomics approach based on high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-HRMS). An ANOVA Multiblock Orthogonal Partial Least Squares analysis (AMOPLS) applied to metabolomics data enabled an accurate discrimination of coffee samples based on coffee market quality and roasting speed. Notably, their interaction was identified as a statistically significant discriminant factor (Residual Structure Ratio p-value = 0.01), with the highest contribution to the model (Relative Sum of Squares = 32.6%). The majority of metabolites detected through the VIP2 approach belong to the lipid and lipid-like molecules chemical class, highlighting their pivotal role in defining the signature of C. canephora coffee. Regarding energy efficiency, the consumption recorded by the natural gas meter at the fast, intermediate, and slow speeds did not show significant differences. The roaster and gas valve employed may influence the efficacy of the “Energy Calculator” of the roasting program “Artisan” (v. 2.10.4), requiring an appropriate configuration. The optimized program resulted in a mean underestimation of real methane consumption by 0.207 kWh (SD 0.124), making it a promising tool for carbon emission calculation in coffee roasting. Moreover, further investigations will be performed to build a multi-omics approach by integrating the UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-HRMS database with the volatilomic analysis performed by the GCxGC-MS technique to reveal the potential network between the chemical profile and the sensory characteristics of the samples
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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