Question

Give a detailed descripition of are caffeine-free beverages actually caffeine-free? Research what requirements must be metin order for a beverage to be considered caffeine-free.

Answer 1

Beverages like soft drinks are usually made up of caffeine-free substances i.o there was no caffeine before. Hence they are 100 % caffeine free. Also it is better to represent them as non-caffeinated.as there was no caffeine before.

Beverages like coffee, cocoa, tea etc. contains caffeine before and hence they are decaffeinated through various processes like organic solvent process, CO2 process, tryglyceride process. During these processes caffeine is separated from the beverage. Hence based on the efficiency of the process followed the decaffeinated beverage may contain 1 - 3% caffeine.

The followings are the requirments for a caffeine containing beverage to made caffeine free.

Decaffeination of coffee is always made in its green and unroasted state.

It is important to separate only caffeine leavng other useful chemicals like sucrose,tartaric acid, cellulose, formic acid, citric acid etc.in their original concentration.

The green and unroasted state of coffee is rinsed with a solvent that extracts the caffeine while leaving other useful chemicals in their original concentration. The decaffeination process is repeated 7 to 8 times or more or less to meet the required standard.

Caffeine being a polar and water soluble substance, water is used in all form of decaffeination process. However, water alone is not efficient as it removes other water soluble chemicals. Hence other efficient decaffeinating agents like activated charcoal, ethyl acetate, CO2, methylene chloride etc. are used.

After decaffeination, the coffee content is measured by High-performance liquid chromatography We can also follow less expensive  Near-infrared spectroscopy to measure caffeine content.