Shelf-life testing of coffee and related products: uncertainties, pitfalls, and perspectives

The word coffee comprises a number of different products from whole-and ground-roasted coffee to a wide variety of convenience and semi-manufactured products such as instant coffee, coffee concentrates and ready-to-drink coffee beverages. Each of these products has peculiar characteristics and thus different deteriorative mechanisms determining their shelf life. For this reason, shelf-life testing should be carefully designed by taking into account the peculiarity of the product. Despite the worldwide importance of coffee products, little data are available on their shelf life and on the relevant assessment methodologies. The aim of this article is to present uncertainties and pitfalls of coffee derivatives shelf-life testing as well as to highlight novel perspectives which allow developing future approaches for their dating. In particular, after describing the main quality decay reactions in coffee derivatives, literature data on coffee shelf life will be reviewed and methodologies for shelf-life testing of coffee derivatives critically discussed.