Coffee arabica, originated in Ethiopia, is considered a quality bean for its high sensory qualities, and has a special price in the world coffee market. The country is a pool of genetic diversity for Arabica coffee, and coffee from different regions has a distinct flavor profile. Their exceptional quality is attributed to their genetic diversity, favorable environmental conditions, and agroforestry-based production system. However, the country still needs to benefit from its single-origin product due to a lack of appropriate traceability information to register for its geographical indication. Certification of certain plants or plant-derived products emerged to inform consumers about their exceptional qualities due to their geographical origin and protect the product from fraud. The recently emerging foodomics approaches, namely proteomics, genomics, and metabolomics, are reported as suitable means of regional agri-food product authentication and traceability. Particularly, the metabolomics approach provides truthful information on product traceability. Despite efforts by some researchers to trace the geographical origin of Ethiopian Arabica coffees through stable isotope and phenolic compound profiling and elemental analysis, foodomics approaches are not used to trace the geographical origin of Arabica specialty coffees from various parts of the country. A metabolomics-based traceability system that demonstrates the connection between the exceptional attributes of Ethiopian Arabica specialty coffees and their geographic origin is recommended to maximize the benefit of single-origin coffees.
Keywords: Coffee arabica; foodomics; geographical origin; metabolomics; traceability.
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