Frauds in coffee

Abstract

In the present paper, the author makes considerations about the coffee fraud existing everywhere and at all times. He mentions the modalities of fraud of coffee in grain and in powder, and also the means to recognize them. The author refers to the coffee peel as the principal substance in the fraud of the industrialized product from the coffee of the cultivating countries, and also to the "Método microscópico para a contagem de cascas no café em pó", studied in the "Secção de Microscopia Alimentar do Instituto Adolfo Lutz", that made possible the extinction of this fraud in the Capital of São Paulo and resulted in a remarkable improvement of the quality of the product in the interior of the country. The author makes a chemical and microscopic study of coffee in powder for the determination of the frauds, based on the usual analysis made at the "Instituto Adolfo Lutz" and suggests the inclusion of some necessary exigencies in our future Bromatological Code. He mentions some substitutes for coffee which is permitted and used in various countries and the frequent relation to the "Decreto-lei n.^o 1996 de 1-2-40", which forbids the use of those substances in the whole Brazilian territory. He deals, in a special way, with the microscopic test of coffee and the substances generally used in the fraud of the product delivered to the public in the State of São Paulo. There are presented a series of original drawings, made by the author, in which the substance studied in this paper presents its more characteristic histological elements combined in only one microscopic field, increased 400 times, and gives, with the necessary explanations, the corresponding description. The author hopes, in presenting this work, to have contributed, in a small part, to decrease the numerous bromatological problems of this rubiacea cultivated in São Paulo, Brazil.