Category: Alerts

Visitor Guide from July 6th 2020

29/6/2020

As restrictions and lock down measures are slowly easing after these difficult months.
The Government, European Food Safety Authority and WHO, still maintain that the transmission through food is unlikely and there is no evidence of this occurring with the novel coronavirus to date.

As from the 6th July 2020, Masteroast will start to allow visits on site. Visits must be agreed in advanced and pre-booked. There can only be 2 groups of 2 people allowed to visit the site at one time. Un-announced visits to the site, will currently not be allowed. All visits on site will be co-ordinated by Masteroast.

Any site visitor will be requested to complete the health hygiene form QP-018. On arrival.
Any site visitor to the factory will have their temperature monitored.
If the person has a temperature or declines to have their temperature taken, they will not be allowed on site.
All site visitors are asked to come on site wearing a mask, to maintain social distancing requirements of 2m where possible, in order to protect Masteroast employees.
All site visitors are asked to follow site hygiene rules and procedures regarding infection prevention and control by: washing and sanitizing hands, not touching one’s face, as well as following general coughing and sneezing etiquette in order to prevent and minimise cross contamination and infection.

We would like to assure you that Masteroast has QA, Hygiene, Food safety policies and procedures in place, and we manage communicable disease and illness.

If you require further information regarding specific products or would like to discuss further, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Masteroast Coffee Company

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The real coffee behind the label

12/6/2018

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The hidden Robusta in an Arabica claim.

In the headlines these last few days there has been a scientific breakthrough on the ability to test a coffee’s type, whether that be Robusta or Arabica and the percentage of each type. (See attached article from Food Manufacture Magazine).

Until now it has been a difficult exercise to scientifically compare like for like coffees based on bean quality. Although laboratory testing can distinguish Robusta from Arabica coffees, it has been a lengthy, time consuming and expensive process. While there is a place in the market for both types of coffee, what is not acceptable or honest is to describe a coffee as 100% Arabica when, in fact, the blend contains a percentage of cheaper Robusta coffees.

The standard technique detects the fingerprint chemical 16-OMC, which is only found in Robusta coffee.The new method takes only 30 minutes and is sensitive enough to detect just 1% Robusta in a blended coffee, enabling simplified and inexpensive testing of the authenticity of coffees.

Lead scientist Dr Kate Kemsley, from the Quadram Institute, formerly known as the Institute of Food Research, said: "This is an important milestone for detecting fraud in coffee, as 1% is the generally accepted cut-off between trace contamination, which might be accidental, and more deliberate adulteration for economic gain."

Masteroast customers have always been confident that whatever blend has been agreed, that is exactly what they will receive. They can with confidence, reveal the blend composition and percentages of any of their products knowing that their blends will stand up to any scrutiny. These new testing facilities, however, may not only discover that some competitors’ products contain cheaper Robustas, contrary to the descriptions on their packaging, but may also explain how, at times, a competitor’s pricing for a “like for like” coffee offering appears to be unrealistically priced!

Telegraph Article

Food Manufacture Article

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Fond of good coffee? Expect to pay more as demand grows

14/1/2016

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Shortage expected within 3 to 5 years.

You may recall our chairman’s seasonal message warned of the impending reduced availability of higher quality coffees. This has been reiterated recently in an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph.

In an interview with Jeffrey Young, managing director of Allegra Group, reporter Lauren Davidson surmised that within three to five years we could be heading for a crisis as supplies of high-quality coffee dry up.

Mr Young told the Telegraph that “the rising tide of quality that has been keeping this industry alive” could be unsustainable, “this thirst for high-quality coffee means that production is not keeping up with demand at a global scale so stocks have been declining”. He added that “Coffee prices, in real terms, haven’t gone up in years, so it is becoming less worthy of farmers’ time to grow coffee”.

British consumption of coffee has burgeoned in recent years. The number of coffee shops surpassed 20,000 in 2015, boosting sales by 10% to £7.9 billion.

To read the full article please click here.

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Is our Coffee in Crisis?

25/10/2015

The threat of Climate Change

We all know that climate change is an ever present threat and surfaces in the media regularly, so much so that it's become part of our everyday life. When pushing on with our lives it's easy to knock the noise of global warming to the back of our minds and then offset our conscience slightly by recycling the odd lunch pack but what are the real consequences of our actions and what is to come for the everyday items we take for granted such as our much-loved beverage.

Global warming is now generally agreed to be a real and very dangerous threat to our way of life and it is starting to get the attention and respect it deserves, the fear is that it may be too late to have any real impact or to reverse the problem.

But how will it effect coffee?
It is predicted that by the year 2050 the land currently used for farming Arabica coffee could be reduced by up to 50%, with regions such at Vietnam, India and most of Central America being hit particularly hard. The primary reason for this is an increase in global temperature. A strong correlation has been made with global temperature increasing by 0.3°C every decade since the 1960s and smaller yields of coffee produced per hectare over this time. Some areas may just be completely unable to make coffee by not having the numerous variables required for the delicate plant to grow.

Other contributing factors are that as coffee becomes a more popular beverage the demand increases. How can we feed an ever increasing need for coffee when we are already having over 2 billion cups a day! The answer to this is simple, the preparation of more land, an estimated 2.2 million hectares of the stuff, approximately the size of Wales! Most of this land is also a Rainforest and removing it would further compound the problem we're facing with climate change.

All things considered, the price of coffee could rise 25% by 2050 and become much more of a luxury than it is seen today, For now you really can only appreciate and enjoy that morning kick as it may be more of a prize to have in the future...

Follow the link below to the original BBC article which goes into the details on what is currently being done to prevent or help manage this problem, such as perhaps growing more fond of Robusta's bitter taste or to graft Arabica strains to the stronger more resistant Robusta plant.

Original BBC article

Drought causing fires in Jamaica damaging crop!

12/5/2015

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Eve Mills, Director and Coffee Buyer at Masteroast, has received notification from our supplier of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee of a possible shortage in next year’s crop:

“The following article appeared in yesterday's Daily Gleaner in Jamaica. Fires have destroyed a not insignificant amount of low grown young green JBM coffee destined for the next crop. This will probably mean that next year's crop will be as short as this year's crop has proven to be.

Our forward shipments covering the current crop have not, most fortunately, been affected but we're technically fully forward sold but any of you who have reservations, confirmed orders and/or contracts with us will be receiving your coffee unless some untoward catastrophe strikes meanwhile - which we're not in any way predicting.

However, the situation in Jamaica remains grave with cherry box prices having increased by 300 percent over this crop year - that's the least of it as yields from the cherries of exportable green coffee have reduced over the same period from 60% to 40%, compounding the problem.

We will keep you informed”.

Original Article

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Visitor Guide from July 6th 2020

The real coffee behind the label

The hidden Robusta in an Arabica claim.

Fond of good coffee? Expect to pay more as demand grows

Shortage expected within 3 to 5 years.

Is our Coffee in Crisis?

The threat of Climate Change

Drought causing fires in Jamaica damaging crop!

Masteroast

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The hidden Robusta in an Arabica claim.

Shortage expected within 3 to 5 years.

The threat of Climate Change

Masteroast

Archives

Categories

Our Services

﻿﻿﻿﻿Coffee Sourcing﻿﻿﻿﻿

﻿﻿Quality Assurance﻿﻿

Company

﻿﻿﻿Careers﻿﻿﻿﻿

News & Info

﻿﻿﻿﻿Gallery﻿﻿﻿﻿

﻿Terms of Use﻿

Coffee Sourcing

Quality Assurance

Careers

Gallery

Terms of Use