Lipidomic profiling of Indonesian coffee to determine its geographical origin by LC-MS/MS

Lipids are biochemical compounds that are substantially present in coffee beans. However, lipids in coffee have not been comprehensively studied thus far and have not been used to differentiate its geographical origin. This study aimed to investigate the applicability of lipid profiling for use in coffee origin authentication. In this study, Indonesian superior coffee originating from six major producing regions was used. Lipid extraction from roasted coffee was subjected to a high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The obtained data were analyzed using the multivariate approach, including partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), principal component analysis, and clustering analysis. The LC-MS/MS analysis tentatively identified 85 lipid species from five global lipid classes, such as neutral lipids, sphingolipids, sterol, glycerophospholipids, and glyceroglycolipids. The PLS-DA model exhibited an accuracy of 90%-100% in discriminating the origins of coffee based on receiver operating characteristics-area under the curve analysis. Therefore, the lipid profile obtained from the LC-MS/MS analysis can be applied to determine the geographical origin of coffee. The selected features showed high reliability as descriptor compounds in the validation analysis, as indicated on the natural separation of the unsupervised model. The results of this research provide solid evidence for the discrimination of the origin of coffee based on its lipid profile. Moreover, it might benefit the coffee industry to establish an advanced method for determining the origin of coffee.

Automated summary

This study investigated the application of lipid profiling for coffee origin authentication and found that lipid profiles obtained from LC-MS/MS analysis can accurately determine the geographical origin of coffee. This research provides solid evidence for the discrimination of coffee origin based on its lipid profile and may benefit the coffee industry in establishing an advanced method for origin determination.