Café vida: Indústria de café solúvel aromatizado

Abstract

Coffee is a globally consumed beverage, in which Brazil ranks first as the largest producer and second in consumption on a global scale. In recent years, there has been an increase in this market, in which coffee has become much more than a simple drink to provide energy and has started to be sought out in other versions by consumers. In addition, due to the presence of people with intolerance to caffeine and the harm it can cause if consumed in excess, there is also an expansion in the consumption of decaffeinated coffees. There has also been an expansion in the instant coffee market, due to its practicality, as well as the search for new flavors. For this reason, the proposal to create a line of flavored instant coffees has arisen, that will cover all public who enjoy this beverage. In this way, Café Vida proposes to produce two versions of flavored coffees with vanilla aroma, the decaffeinated one, which will be made only with the arabica species that is more accepted by the consumers, and a blend of 50% arabica and 50% robusta used as raw material for the traditional one, both processed by the freeze-drying method (lyophilization), that will guarantee to maintain the raw material's properties, such as flavor, aroma and its greater conservation, besides commercializing the caffeine obtained during the decaffeination process. The company will be medium-sized, located in Pouso Alegre (MG), a strategic point because it will be close to the plantation, with tax incentives for its implementation and qualified labor. The estimated monthly production goal is 1.500.000 kg/month of soluble flavored coffees, 80% of which will be for the traditional product and 20% for decaffeinated coffee. To supply such demand, the industry estimates the operation of 29 days per month, managed in 3 work shifts of 8 hours each. To obtain the final product it is necessary to go through several processes such as: receiving the raw material, cleaning and selection, peeling, decaffeination for the decaffeinated version, roasting, grinding, extraction, centrifugation, concentration, freeze-drying, flavoring, packaging and storage. In addition, this project will include the business organization chart, the calculations of global mass balance and per component and the global energy balance and per component for the production goals to be achieved, description of the processes, equipment specifications, industry layout, process flow diagram and financial review.