Prevalence of spoilage mold in coffee before and after brewing

Commercial ground coffee must be safe for consumption and comply with the regulation applied in a country. However, the risk of the occurrence of spoilage molds in commercial ground coffee, particularly toxigenic mold originated from coffee cherries or green beans, is still a major concern of the coffee industry. This study evaluated the prevalence of spoilage mold in fifteen brands of commercial ground coffee. The spoilage molds were also determined after traditional brewing (non-filtration brewing). The mold counts were enumerated on dichloran-glycerol 18% agar by spread plate method. The spoilage molds were also morphologically identified after isolation on malt extract agar and potato dextrose agar. The results showed that low numbers of molds were found in all samples before brewing, in a range of 10 to 200 CFU/g. A total of eleven genera were identified. Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium were found as the predominating genera. After brewing, molds from genera Alternaria and Aspergillus were still found. However, the total counts decreased to the level between undetected to an average of 3 CFU/mL. This study highlighted that very low levels of spoilage mold was recovered after brewing which may not pose a health risk.