Coffee Fruit Cascara: A New, Sustainable Way to Drink Coffee ^†

Abstract

In January 2022, dried coffee cherries from Coffea arabica L. and Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner, commonly called cascara, were finally authorized as a Traditional Food from a Third Country and were added to the Union List of Authorized Novel Foods. Coffee fruit cascara is rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds with health-promoting properties. It is proposed that coffee fruit cascara is used for the preparation of infusions, hot beverages, and non-alcoholic, ready-to-drink beverages. Moving forward, the beverage industry will be able to upcycle this material that has been wasted and undervalued in the past. In addition to its use as a beverage, coffee fruit cascara has the potential to be consumed by humans in many ways before it is used for animal feed, compost, energy production, or incineration, which are less preferable revalorization options according to the Food Waste Hierarchy Pyramid proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It is said that if you want to change the world, you should start with coffee. Therefore, the current research focuses on the valorization of coffee fruit cascara to contribute to the sustainability of the coffee industry and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.