Specific and sensitive food biomarkers are necessary to support dietary intake assessment and link nutritional habits to potential impact on human health. A multistep nutritional intervention study was conducted to suggest novel biomarkers for coffee consumption. (1)H NMR metabolic profiling combined with multivariate data analysis resolved 2-furoylglycine (2-FG) as a novel putative biomarker for coffee consumption. We relatively quantified 2-FG in the urine of coffee drinkers and investigated its origin, metabolism, and excretion kinetics. When searching for its potential precursors, we found different furan derivatives in coffee products, which are known to get metabolized to 2-FG. Maximal urinary excretion of 2-FG occurred 2 h after consumption (p = 0.0002) and returned to baseline after 24 h (p = 0.74). The biomarker was not excreted after consumption of coffee substitutes such as tea and chicory coffee and might therefore be a promising acute biomarker for the detection of coffee consumption in human urine.
Keywords: 2-furoylglycine; NMR spectroscopy; coffee biomarker; metabolomics; nutritional intervention; urine.