UNMASKING IMPOSTERS

How Isotope Expertise Fueled The Fight Against Counterfeit Kona Coffee

AS A WORLD-RENOWNED EXPERT IN STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS, JIM EHLERINGER HAS MADE GROUNDBREAKING CONTRIBUTIONS TO FIELDS RANGING FROM ECOLOGY TO FORENSICS.

But it was his unique expertise that found an unexpected application in the fight to protect the reputation and livelihoods of Hawaii's Kona coffee growers.

In 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kona coffee's small-scale farmers against over 20 companies accused of selling coffee falsely labeled as "Kona." At the heart of the case were several types of stable isotope and element abundance analyses performed by Ehleringer's group, which revealed a telling difference between authentic Kona beans and the impostors.

"As you go from green beans to roasted beans, you're changing the water content," explains Ehleringer.

"So I borrowed an approach from geology that instead looked at the relative concentrations of rare elements in the beans. These ratios, I found, stay constant even at roasting temperatures."

By testing coffee samples from around the world as well as over 150 from Kona farms, Ehleringer's team identified stable isotope ratios and key element ratios—such as strontium to zinc, and barium to nickel—that clearly distinguished genuine Kona coffee. "We were able to establish a fingerprint for Kona coffee," he says.

This fingerprint revealed a troubling truth: the chemical signatures associated with authentic Kona coffee were different from the samples of "Kona" coffee sold by the defendants.

"It's the characteristics of the volcanic rock that make Kona coffee elementally unique," Ehleringer explains. "Those elements and their ratios are what give it that distinct profile."

Ehleringer's simple yet powerful approach proved a game-changer.

"Other researchers have used stable isotope ratio and element abundance methods to test things like honey, oils, onions, and wine," he notes. "But in this case, it helped uncover a widespread scam that was cheating Kona's small-scale farmers out of their livelihoods."

Although some defendants contested the test results initially arguing they had not been replicated by other laboratories, the defendants were unwilling to conduct independent analyses themselves, ultimately settling out of court. The Kona growers received a $40 million settlement, a significant sum for an industry where most farms span just five acres or less.

Since this story was first reported in the New York Times in January, the victory has turned bittersweet. The Kona growers have since approached him again, suspecting the same companies are back to their old tricks.

"I want to help them, but I can only do so through proper legal channels," Ehleringer says of the Kona farmers, still proud that his expertise could empower them to defend the authenticity of their prized product."The truth is on their side, and my research gives them the scientific tools to fight back. But the wheels of justice turn slowly."

Today, as Ehleringer has entered phased retirement, the SIRFER lab which provides stable isotope ratio analyses on both organic and inorganic samples, will be relocated to the U’s Department of Geology & Geophysics where it will remain under the direction of geologist Gabriel Bowen.