Investigation of CO2 precursors in roasted coffee

•A method was developed to study the evolved CO2.•CGA is shown not a major precursor of CO2.•Maillard reaction is the main pathway for CO2 formation.•About 50% of CO2 was from lower molecular weight compounds.

Two CO2 formation pathways (chlorogenic acid (CGA) degradation and Maillard reaction) during coffee roasting were investigated. CGA is shown not a major contributor to CO2 formation, as heating of this compound under typical roasting conditions did not release a large quantity of CO2. However, heating of a CGA moiety, caffeic acid, resulted in high yield of CO2 (>98%), suggesting that CGA hydrolysis could be the rate limiting step for CO2 formation from CGA. A large amount of CO2 was detected from glycine-sucrose model system under coffee roasting conditions, implying the importance of Maillard reactions in CO2 formation. Further studies on the heating of various components isolated from green coffee beans showed that CO2 was generated from various green coffee components, including water insoluble proteins and polysaccharides. Around 50% of CO2 was formed from thermal reactions of lower molecular weight compounds that represent ∼25% by weight in green coffee.