You might need a cup of coffee to kickstart your day, but apparently it’s not just the coffee beans you’re tasting.
New research has shown there’s more than likely ‘fillers’ being added to your blend, including wheat, soy beans, barley, rye, acai seeds, brown sugar, corn, and even sticks in your coffee blends.
Presented at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, researchers believe the natural extras could be added by companies in order to make the coffee go further… and boost the profit on the commodity.
While the majority of fillers are largely harmless, Joan Salge Blake, M.S., R.S., a clinical associate professor of nutrition at Boston University warns they could disrupt the gut of people with food allergies.
According to the study, Brazilian researchers are now working on a process to evaluate the make-up of coffee and determine whether the ground beans are whole or a mixed compound, before reaching its consumers.
The researchers hope to use a technique called liquid chromatography to trace the different elements of a liquid, to suss out how many fillers are in coffee. Based on the quantities, scientists will know whether the ‘fillers’ are occurring by nature or being added to increase a company’s profits.
Suzana Lucy Nixdorf, Ph.D., lead researcher at University of Londrina in Brazil, said:
“With our test, it is now possible to know with 95 percent accuracy if coffee is pure or has been tampered with.
“Unless you’re very allergic to one of the fillers, there isn’t too much cause to worry.”
If you’d rather not wait for the results, it’s probably about time you start buying beans to grind yourself.
