Digested Civet Coffee Beans (Kopi Luwak)—An Unfortunate Trend in Specialty Coffee Caused by Mislabeling of Coffea liberica?
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Chemisches und Veterinäruntersuchungsamt (CVUA) Karlsruhe, Weissenburger Strasse 3, 76187 Karlsruhe, Germany
2
Coffee Consulate, Hans-Thoma-Strasse 20, 68163 Mannheim, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Raúl González-Domínguez
Foods 2021, 10(6), 1329; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061329
Received: 11 May 2021
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Revised: 3 June 2021
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Accepted: 7 June 2021
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Published: 9 June 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Authentication: Techniques, Trends and Emerging Approaches (Second Issue))
In the context of animal protection, the trend of digested coffees such as Kopi Luwak produced by civet cats in captivity should not be endorsed. Previous studies on such coffees may have been flawed by sample selection and misclassification. As wild civets may prefer Coffea liberica beans, due to their higher sugar content, the chemical differences may be caused by the Coffea species difference combined with a careful selection of ripe, defect-free cherries by the animals, rather than changes caused by digestion. This may also explain the observed differences between Kopi Luwak from wild civets (mainly C. liberica) compared to the one from animals in captivity (typically fed with C. arabica and/or C. canephora).
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Keywords:
coffee; fermentation; gastrointestinal tract; Kopi Luwak; civet
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MDPI and ACS Style
Lachenmeier, D.W.; Schwarz, S. Digested Civet Coffee Beans (Kopi Luwak)—An Unfortunate Trend in Specialty Coffee Caused by Mislabeling of Coffea liberica? Foods 2021, 10, 1329. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061329
AMA Style
Lachenmeier DW, Schwarz S. Digested Civet Coffee Beans (Kopi Luwak)—An Unfortunate Trend in Specialty Coffee Caused by Mislabeling of Coffea liberica? Foods. 2021; 10(6):1329. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061329
Chicago/Turabian StyleLachenmeier, Dirk W., and Steffen Schwarz. 2021. "Digested Civet Coffee Beans (Kopi Luwak)—An Unfortunate Trend in Specialty Coffee Caused by Mislabeling of Coffea liberica?" Foods 10, no. 6: 1329. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061329
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