Coffee growers have initiated new technology to assure consumers around the world that the coffee purchased is derived from high quality beans of Colombian origin said the Colombian Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC), El Espectador reported Thursday.
The new technology, Near Infrared Spectroscopy or NIRS, measures the spectral fingerprint of the coffee which can identify its regional and global origin. NIRS was developed by the FNC in association with the University of Rioja in Spain.
Luis Genaro Muñoz, head of the FNC, said that the aim of the new technology is to protect the quality and reputation of Colombian coffee. “This new technology seeks to ensure that the product the consumer is savouring is really a coffee with all the sensory characteristics of the best coffee in the world.”
The FNC has been creating a database of Colombian coffee from all the different regions since 2004 and it is presently collecting coffee samples from around the world.
In 2010 analyses were carried out on 32,000 samples of Colombia and 1,000 additional samples were taken from stores in Asia, Europe and North America.