Starbucks China responds to carcinogenic coffee controversy: Latest updates on acrylamide content and its impact

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California Court Rules Starbucks Must Label Coffee with Cancer Warning

In recent days, news about a California court ruling requiring Starbucks to label coffee with "potential cancer warnings" has been trending on social media. The basis for the ruling is that coffee contains high levels of acrylamide, a substance that is easily carcinogenic.

The court's ruling doesn't just target Starbucks, but the entire coffee industry. The latest news is that on the evening of March 31st, Starbucks China issued a media statement to The Paper, stating that regarding the court's ruling, the National Coffee Association of the United States has issued a bulletin on this ruling, insisting that coffee is a safe beverage and that the court's ruling misleads the public.

Yesterday, this article about Starbucks' biggest scandal being exposed went viral on social media. Fortunately, most people remained rational, and rumors stop with the wise.

Public Reactions

@ThisCupOfCoffeeIsNotTooCold: There are too many carcinogens in this world. Who doesn't live until death? Don't just let coffee take the blame for this.

@Heaven'sWill: Drinking coffee causes cancer from acrylamide. You'd need to drink 300-400 cups of coffee per day to reach that dose. You'd die from caffeine poisoning before getting cancer... Or to put it another way, a normal person drinking 400 cups of water per day would also die. A friend just educated me about this!

@OldXu: This morning, I saw those alarmist people constantly sharing the idea that coffee causes cancer on social media... I didn't even bother to read it! I just treat it as statements from people who don't like coffee! It's like with fans - for every celebrity that some people like, there will always be people who hate them! There are so many carcinogenic substances. I'll have my two cups a day regardless.

@Zhii: Haha, I just laughed. I don't believe the people who filed this lawsuit don't drink coffee or eat fried foods. Really unbelievable.

@MaoHaizi: Come to China. Chinese people have long been immune to this.

This eye-catching headline is like a nightmare for coffee lovers. Is coffee really undrinkable? Fortunately, Coffee Workshop hasn't spread rumors. When reporting on this matter, it has always maintained an objective and fair attitude!

How Much Acrylamide is in a Cup of Coffee?

What is Acrylamide and How Does It Affect the Human Body?

Acrylamide is a toxic chemical substance. In 2002, Swedish scientists first discovered that fried potato chips, French fries, and other foods can easily form acrylamide through chemical reactions. Since then, scientists have found that many foods, especially those rich in carbohydrates that are cooked at high temperatures, contain acrylamide.

According to a report issued by the China Food and Drug Administration in July 2014, experts from the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment and the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University believe that acrylamide has neurotoxic effects on both humans and animals. For animals, it also has reproductive toxicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity.

To put it simply, current academic research has only found that this substance may be carcinogenic in animals, but what cancers it can cause in humans is still unclear.

In 2005, at the 64th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), 6,752 acrylamide detection data points from food in 24 countries between 2002-2004 were collected. Among these, the average acrylamide content in coffee (brewed) was 13 (μg/kg), with a maximum of 116 (μg/kg). For coffee (roasted, ground, unbrewed), the average acrylamide content was 288 (μg/kg), with a maximum of 1291 (μg/kg).

How is this calculated? Let's use the most conservative estimation. For a 70kg person, the daily tolerable intake of acrylamide is 182 micrograms (70×2.6=182). In other words, they would need to drink at least 404 cups of black coffee per day (182÷0.45=404) to reach a carcinogenic dose. Similarly, a 50kg coffee lover would need to drink 318 cups of black coffee per day to consume a carcinogenic dose of acrylamide. It's believed that normal people cannot drink such enormous amounts of coffee in a single day.

10g of caffeine is roughly equivalent to the amount in 28 medium cups of Starbucks coffee!

Try drinking 28 cups of Starbucks in a day. So, don't worry about this.

Discussing Toxicity Without Dosage is Irresponsible!

Acrylamide in Roasted Coffee

In the article "Current Research on Acrylamide in Roasted Coffee" by Xu Tongyu, Zeng Shaodong, et al., published in the Journal of Food Safety and Quality Detection, it was pointed out that the main factors affecting acrylamide formation in coffee include coffee type, roasting temperature, and time. For example, when roasting temperature is between 120-180°C, reducing processing temperature and heating time can reduce the final acrylamide formation. When roasting temperature is above 200°C, higher temperatures and longer times result in lower final acrylamide content.

This means it's recommended that coffee friends drink coffee made from lightly roasted coffee beans to reduce acrylamide intake, such as FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over single-origin coffee.

Discussing Toxicity Without Dosage is Irresponsible

Additionally, acrylamide exists not only in coffee but more importantly in fried and overly baked foods. Normally, try to eat fewer fried foods. (Content unit is micrograms per kilogram)

• Cooked grains and noodles (113 samples): 15
• Roasted and stir-fried vegetables (39 samples): 59
• Fresh vegetables (45 samples): 4.2
• Coffee extract (20 samples): 1100
• Decaffeinated coffee (26 samples): 688
• Fried chicken legs (10 samples): 81-271

Final Expert Conclusion: The Dose is Not Significant - One or Two Cups Per Day is Fine!

So, in fact, everyone doesn't need to worry too much. Normal eating and drinking won't harm health. Compared to drinking one or two cups of black coffee, it might be more meaningful to reduce intake of non-dairy creamer, sugar, salt, eat fewer fried and grilled foods, and eat fewer cookies and potato chips.

Do what you need to do, drink your single-origin coffee as usual,
drink your Starbucks as usual,
as our netizens say,
Chinese people have long been immune to this, hahaha~~

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