Inclusion of Genetic Information to Better Inform Coffee Choices

Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages due to the delivery of caffeine and diverse flavours. The genetics of how caffeine is processed in the human body is fairly well understood. With the decrease in cost and increase in popularity of consumer genetics, we are interested in learning how modern genetic analysis techniques can benefit the choice of caffeine and flavour for coffee consumers. We plan to look at candidate genes that relate to caffeine clearance rates within volunteers, then deliver blends of coffee customized to individual volunteers’ caffeine tolerances and preferences. Additionally, the genetics of flavour perception, and taste associated genes are fairly well known. Based on candidate taste genes, will also test which blends of coffee are preferred based on flavour perception with respect to bitter taste genes.

Faculty Supervisor:

Marc Ekker

Student:

Michael Kalyn

Partner:

Beverage Genetics

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Ottawa