Today's Stories: Cuban Americans prepare for new restrictions Central America a haven of beef, seafood, condiments, liquor and more Decaf coffee, straight from the plant

Decaffeinated coffee without the grind. Scientists have found a variety of arabica coffee that doesn't contain caffeine Naturally decaffinated arabica beans have never been grown commercially (Image: California Department of Food and Agriculture)

Meanwhile in Washington, the Treasury Department announced a one-month extension, which will allow Cuban Americans who travel to the island by June 29 to remain here legally until July 31. That deadline replaces a previously announced June 30 cut off date and gives "people who are currently in Cuba and subject to the country's information embargo the necessary time to make appropriate travel arrangements off the island," Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said. Full Story

Central America a haven of beef, seafood, condiments, liquor and more
Central America has more things to boast about than just coffee beans.

And Taiwan buying beef, seafood, hot sauce, cigars and wine from Nicaragua, Panama, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Salvador and Guatemala is a testimony of this.

A team of 20 Central American representatives of the food industry visited Taiwan last week. Besides participating in the 2004 Taipei International Food Show and promoting the best staples of the their countries, many took the chance to meet with potential buyers and seek more business opportunities. Full Story
 

Decaf coffee, straight from the plant
Brazilian scientists say they have found a rare variety of coffee plant that should provide the world's first cup of naturally decaffeinated but full-tasting coffee.

Professor Paulo Mazzafera of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas and team published their find in today's issue of the journal Nature.

The researchers were screening 3000 coffee bushes grown under a program aimed at reducing caffeine content in coffee beans.

The plants are varieties of Coffea arabica, a species that accounts for 70% of coffee consumed in the world.

Three specimens of the precious variety, which originated in Ethiopia, were "almost completely free" of caffeine, the researchers said.

Decaffeinated coffee accounts for about 10% of the world coffee market, but experts say demand would soar if decaffeinated beans could be produced naturally.

Currently, one method of decaffeination involves exposing the beans to a solvent to leach out the caffeine. But that also destroys many of the compounds that make up the complex bouquet of flavours in a good cup of coffee. The process is also energy intensive, and this adds to the price. Another way of removing caffeine uses water-extraction.

Last year, Japanese biotechnologists said they had developed a genetically-modified bush that reduced the activity of caffeine genes in a common strain of coffee plant, Coffea canephora, by 50 to 70%.

But using genetically-engineered plants is controversial as critics fear the altered genes could be handed on to other species and may also affect human health.

The Brazilian researchers said their next task was to transfer the genes from the decaffinated varieties into mainstream varieties of C. arabica.

The goal is a product that combines the best qualities, an easy-to-grow coffee that has full flavour but is naturally caffeine-free.  But this task can be done through conventional crossbreeding using tissue culture, and not through recombinant DNA, they believe.

They said that as C. arabica has a narrow genetic diversity and that even varieties from Ethiopia and Yemen, as well as old varieties, all produce high-quality coffee, it is likely that the newly found plants will produce a good beverage.

But the decaffeinated arabica plant has not been grown commercially so Mazzafera and his colleagues do not know how productive it will be.

If the decaffeinated arabica is commercially productive, naturally decaffeinated coffee could be on the market in five or six years. If it isn't, coffee from a cross with other arabicas could take up to 15 years.

Previous attempts to graft caffeine-free traits from a wild coffee plant found in Madagascar to C. arabica were disastrous.

This was because C. arabica has a strong genetic barrier that resists genes imported from other strains. The coffee tasted horrible.