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  • The Organizing Committee of the 7th European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research, to be held from September 11 to 14, selected a paper on sensory analysis by Almacafé to be presented at the venue of this important forum.

Research work by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) and Café de Colombia in sensory analysis, through Almacafé’s Coffee Quality Office, is at the forefront of the industry.

The Organizing Committee of the 7th European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research, to be held in Dijon, France, from September 11 to 14, selected the abstract “Application of QDA (Quantitative Descriptive Analysis) method to assess performance of a sensory panel (cup tasters) to identify Colombian/non-Colombian origin of a coffee sample,” to be presented at the venue of this important forum.

The proposals from different countries to be presented at the conference are of very high level; hence, the mere selection of Almacafé’s abstract as a poster is very commendable, as the Organizing Committee itself recognizes.

“Abstracts of an extremely high standard were submitted for the conference, and we believe we have selected an excellent mix of abstracts to address the conference themes. We very much look forward to your presentation,” reads a letter sent by the committee.

The paper is authored by Rodrigo Alarcón (of Almacafé’s Coffee Quality Office), P. Restrepo (professor of chemistry at the National University of Colombia, in Bogotá) and Tatiana Cuervo (Almacafé’s CQO), along with Almacafé employees.

This research was accredited under the ISO 17025:2005 standard in 2010 and is being re-accredited under the same standard in 2016. It is the result of a joint effort of over 3 years of trials, which has enabled the sensory panel (cup tasters) to reach very high levels of reliability (comparable to the best current techniques of chemical analysis, such as detection of agrochemical residues), based on knowledge, experience and development of an own method of the Colombian coffee institutions. The main objective is to differentiate 100% Colombian coffee in blends of coffee with other origins.

To better appreciate this achievement by the panel of cup tasters, it is worth reminding that other technique available at the FNC to identify and differentiate Colombian coffee from other origins is the very sophisticated Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS).