TACTRI establishes coffee leaf safety assessment technology to activate the development of the agricultural industry chain (Council of Agriculture)

In order to promote the agricultural industrial value-added project, integration and optimization the agricultural product safety functional industrial value chain, in response to the health threats of the metabolic syndrome people will face in the future, TACTRI actively invested in the research and development the agricultural industry chain of coffee leaf healthy drink that regulates metabolic syndrome. Coffee leaf are not only rich in functional components that can regulate blood lipids hyperlipidemia such as Mangiferin and Chlorogenic acid, but also are wastes of pruning during cultivation. Coffee leaf can achieve circular economy if used wisely, and have the potential of being an emerging healthy drink.

TACTRI pointed out that at this stage, coffee leaf’ consumption history in Taiwan is less than 25 years; meanwhile, the toxicological data are also quite insufficient in other countries. According to the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration, a series of  toxicological assessments must be passed before manufacturing and selling any non-traditional food ingredients, to prove the consumption of this non-traditional food is safe for human health. Thus, TACTRI correspond in the needs of the coffee industry, proceed the safety assessments on coffee leaf with professional toxicological testing technology. In 2018, the assessment reports of developmental toxicity (teratogenicity), mutagenicity and subchronic toxicity after 90 days of feeding of coffee leaf extracts were completed and submitted to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for the preliminary review of the list of edible ingredients in non-traditional food raw materials.

TACTRI stated that according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s reply in 2018, it was necessary to supplement the key gap information related to coffee leaf ingredients. After TACTRI understand the meaning of the key gap with the agricultural laboratory team, they actively proceeded to prepare the data regarding the Trigonelline and Caffeine contents in different leaf stage(young or mature) and  different manufacturing methods. TACTRI completed the supplementation of the relevant information for registering in the list of edible ingredients in 2019 and sent it again to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for reviewing, hoping to assist the industry in registering coffee leaf on the list of raw materials for food.

TACTRI will continue to integrate cross-field cooperation in the future, establish a coffee leaf Taiwan Good Agricultural Practice (TGAP) farming system, assist in the production of safe coffee leaf tea raw materials, and develop the functional coffee leaf tea product with good flavor and safety on the foundation of Taiwan’s tea-making experience.

Research and development the agricultural industry chain of coffee leaf drink

After the coffee leaves are made into tea, the appearance is brown, with a light oolong tea fragrance

After the coffee leaf tea is brewed, the appearance of the drink is amber to brown, the highest dose group is set at 10 times of the suggested brewing amount