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Court dismisses suit requiring coffee-cancer link warning

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August 31, 2020

Businesses that sell coffee will not have to add warnings that coffee is suspected to cause cancer after a California Superior Court Judge dismissed a suit seeking to require such a warning, according to a Yahoo News report. The judge ruled last week that a recent state regulation exempts companies from having to include the warning under California's Proposition 65.

The California Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment said coffee does not pose a significant cancer risk in a proposed regulation amendment.

"Exposures to listed chemicals in coffee, listed on or before March 15, 2019 as known to the state to cause cancer, that are created by and inherent in the processes of roasting coffee beans or brewing coffee do not pose a significant risk of cancer," according to the proposed amendment.

The defendants sought a summary judgment on the suit.

The Council for Education & Research on Toxics, a non-profit founded in 2003 in Long Beach, California in 2003, raised the claim in 2010. Raphael Metzker, an attorney for the organization, said acrylamide should be included in product warnings on account of research indicating the chemical causes cancer in laboratory animals.

Acrylamide is found in cooked foods rich in sugar and carbohydrates, including roasted brewed coffee as well as cookies, potato chips and baked bread. Whether coffee poses such a risk is not settled since analysis did not show any increase in cancer among people consuming large amounts of coffee, according to the report.

A California Superior Court ruled in 2018 that Starbucks and other coffee sellers would have to post the warning, according to a Business Insider report.