LAUSR

Micronutrients’ deficiency is a relevant public health issue with considerable socio-economic consequences. Food fortification has been widely used as a simple low-cost strategy to increase mineral intake. Considering that coffee is among the most consumed food products worldwide, gourmet and traditional medium and dark roasted C. arabica and C. canephora beans were ground and singly or jointly fortified with ferrous bisglycinate chelate (21mg iron/kg), zinc lactate (10.5mg zinc/kg), and calcium lactate (1.5g/kg) salts. Beverages were prepared at 10%, (w/v) using electric coffee dripper with nylon filter, and mineral recoveries were evaluated by Inductively Coupled-Plasma-Optical-Emission-Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Coffee beverages’ acceptance and sensory characterization were performed by 103 regular coffee consumers, using a 9-point hedonic scales and Check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions. The impact of coffee quality (gourmet or traditional), roast degree (medium and dark) and mineral fortification (singly or jointly) on the beverage were evaluated. Mineral recoveries were 51.1%, 47.6%, and 51.3% for ferrous bisglycinate chelate, zinc lactate, and calcium lactate, respectively. Mean acceptance scores varied from 6.0 to 3.4. Unfortified blends and fortified blends with the three minerals were more liked by participants and were associated with positive attributes such as caramel, characteristic flavor, and chocolate. Roast degree and quality affected acceptance results, especially in blends fortified with a single mineral. The iron-fortified dark roasted blend was the least liked due to a strong metallic flavor, while dark roast was important to mask astringency in calcium-fortified gourmet blend, which had similar acceptance to unfortified blends. The beverage fortified with zinc was more accepted in medium roasted blend, regardless of being gourmet or traditional. Therefore, when fortifying coffee, issues related to the quality of the blend, roast degree and association with other components should be considered. In addition, results showed that the association of minerals had a positive effect on the consumer acceptance.