General Foods Limited

Kraft General Foods, Inc.

Martin Gottesman

Saul N Katz

Ravi Prasad

Robert A Scarella

George A Jasovsky

Karl C Kramer

Mateo Haya

Richard August Pfluger

James F Meinhold

Green coffee may be decaffeinated by extracting caffeine from either green coffee or an aqueous extract of green coffee by means of n-butyl acetate. Improved selectivity for caffeine is evidenced by n-butyl acetate, thereby improving the organoleptic quality of the decaffeinated coffee by selectively removing caffeine without extracting a significant amount of non-caffeine solids.

Decaffeination of green coffee with n-butyl acetate

A method of simultaneously hydrolyzing spent coffee grounds and extracting the coffee oil therefrom is disclosed. Spent coffee grounds are slurried in water and the pH is adjusted by the addition of an acid to the slurry. A water-immiscible oil solvent is combined with and dispersed as fine droplets in the slurry. The dispersion is then passed through a reactor, preferably a plug flow reactor, so as to hydrolyze the spent coffee grounds and extract the coffee oil into the oil solvent droplets. The then coffee oil-containing oil solvent is separated from the aqueous hydrolysate and the spent grounds are also separated from the hydrolysate. The coffee oil is optionally recovered from the oil solvent and the aqueous hydrolysate is optionally neutralized and combined with a soluble coffee extract.

Simultaneous coffee hydrolysis and oil extraction

Aqueous extracts of roasted coffee are stripped of aroma, concentrated and thereafter decaffeinated by means of contact with a decaffeinating fluid such as liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide. Aroma loss is minimized by using water to remove caffeine and aroma from the CO.sub.2 stream, recovering aromatics from this caffeine-containing aqueous stream and adding-back these aromatics to the decaffeinated extract. Preferably equipment cost is minimized by use of a single pressure vessel to transfer the caffeine from the extract stream to the CO.sub.2 and from the CO.sub.2 to the water stream.

Decaffeination of aqueous roasted coffee extract

Liquid propane, liquid butane or mixtures thereof at a temperature of from 30.degree. C. to 95.degree. C. is employed to selectively remove caffeine from moistened green coffee. The resulting decaffeinated coffee is then roasted and processed to ground or soluble coffee products which will possess the flavor and aroma of comparable non-decaffeinated coffee products.

Method for decaffeinating coffee

A lower-grade green coffee bean fraction is moisturized to above 37% by weight and then decaffeinated by extraction with a moist supercritical fluid having a temperature of at least 100.degree. C. This decaffeinated coffee is then combined, either before or after roasting, with a higher-grade coffee fraction. Typically the higher-grade fraction will be coffee which has been decaffeinated by extraction with a moist supercritical fluid at a temperature below about 85.degree. C.

Preparation of a decaffeinated roasted coffee blend

Decaffeination of aqueous extracts

A high quality coffee extract is prepared using a commercial percolation system utilizing a superficial velocity of aqueous extraction liquid past the roasted and ground coffee of at least about 0.50 ft/min in the fresh stage extraction column of a percolator set.

Growing community of inventors

Paramus, NJ, United States of America

Martin Gottesman