"Causes cancer": why this inscription may appear on coffee in California
'08.04.2018'
Source: Fox News
A Los Angeles judge ruled that coffee companies should indicate on their product packaging a warning about the potential carcinogenicity of coffee.
Supreme Court Justice Elihu Berl has stated that Starbucks and other coffee companies could not prove that the threat of a chemical compound, which is produced in the process of roasting coffee beans, is negligible. Reports about it Fox News.
Acrylamide is a carcinogen that appears as part of the future coffee drink when coffee beans are roasted. This substance is on the list of cancer-causing chemicals approved by the state of California. The list also has alcoholic beverages.
The lawsuit was first filed in 2010 by a non-profit group outraged that manufacturers, distributors and retailers who make or sell coffee “do not provide a clear and reasonable warning that drinking coffee can expose a person to acrylamide.”
The coffee industry claims that the chemical is present in beverages at a safe level and is part of the brewing process, which makes coffee taste good.
National Coffee Association President William Murray believes the lawsuit is a mockery of the law requiring consumers to be notified of the really significant content of potentially hazardous substances in beverages, as well as "confusing consumers and doing nothing to improve public health."
The proposed court decisions, according to the laws of the state of California, can be reversed, but in practice this is done very rarely.
