Coffee origin discrimination by paper spray mass spectrometry and direct coffee spray analysis

Abstract

Here we explore the application of the ambient ionization technique paper spray mass spectrometry (PS-MS) combined with the multivariate statistical tools principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis as a fast and simple method to discriminate green arabica coffee beans from three different origins in Brazil. PS-MS does not require nebulizing gas or complex protocols for sample preparation and by the analysis of 5 μL of whole coffee bean extracts it was possible to discriminate the coffee origin. Furthermore, we report the direct analysis of a single coffee bean using a bean slice as the sample and also the substrate for electrospray ionization.