California may require coffee to be sold with a cancer warning — here’s what the science says
The risk comes from the chemical Acrylamide, which in large quantities could be dangerous and can’t be removed from coffee
By Kevin Loria
If a lawsuit currently being evaluated by a California court goes a certain way, coffee shops and coffee-selling gas stations may be forced post labels about potential cancer-causing chemicals. They may even have to pay fines if they don’t warn customers about the risks of chemicals in coffee.
The Council for Education and Research on Toxics — the group behind the lawsuit — wants to penalise companies that don’t warn customers that coffee contains acrylamide, a chemical that California lists as one “known to cause cancer.”
Acrylamide naturally forms when plants and grains are cooked at high temperatures. It’s created in the process known as the maillard reaction, in which high heat transforms sugars and amino acids in ways that change flavour and tend to brown food. When potatoes, bread, biscuits, or coffee are heated, acrylamide forms.
But there’s no conclusive reason to believe that coffee or other foods expose humans to dangerous levels of acrylamide. And there’s no known way to make coffee without acrylamide.
Acrylamide and cancer risk
The chemical in question here was first discovered by Swedish scientists in 2002, according to the American Cancer Society.