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posted by chromas on Friday March 30 2018, @08:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the post-contains-comments-known-to-the-State-of-California-to-cause-cancer-or-reproductive-toxicity dept.

Coffee sold in California must carry cancer warning, judge rules

Coffee sold in California must carry a cancer warning, a court has ruled. The judge in Los Angeles said Starbucks and about 90 other coffee sellers had failed to warn customers about a potentially toxic compound that is produced during the roasting process.

The firms were sued by a California-based non profit-group over the chemical acrylamide. The group argued that as acrylamide is regarded as carcinogenic under state law, it should be sold with a warning.

Ruling in favour of the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said the companies should not be exempt from the law, as they had failed to prove that the "consumption of coffee confers a benefit to human health". The companies have until 10 April to appeal the decision.

Also at The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Related: California Issues Warning Over Cellphones; Study Links Non-Ionizing Radiation to Miscarriage


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by archfeld on Friday March 30 2018, @08:31PM (10 children)

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Friday March 30 2018, @08:31PM (#660519) Journal

    Anything charred over an open flame, fried in oil (potato chips) or generally processed from raw form causes cancer. It is along the lines of life causes death. Been that way forever and will likely always be that way. The trick is to enjoy the ride and not worry about the ultimate destination, or so I've been told...

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Friday March 30 2018, @09:03PM (4 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Friday March 30 2018, @09:03PM (#660534) Journal

    But coffee is not charred over an open flame.

    https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/acrylamide-fact-sheet#q3 [cancer.gov]

    ".a large number of epidemiologic studies (both case-control and cohort studies) in humans have found no consistent evidence that dietary acrylamide exposure is associated with the risk of any type of cancer"
    . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates the amount of residual acrylamide in a variety of materials that contact food, but there are currently no guidelines governing the presence of acrylamide in food itself.

    This is what happens when we let judges decide scientific facts.

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    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @09:23PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @09:23PM (#660539)

      This is what happens when we let judges decide scientific facts.

      Do you expect any kind of sanity from the state that decriminalised deliberately infecting someone with HIV? The state that refuses to deal with a massive homelessness problem while simultaneously offering sanctuary for illegals as the middle class exodus continues? And with the secession movement, they're aiming for peak retard - Venezuela style.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @10:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @10:22PM (#660562)

        I dunno, apparently some other state beat us to it. Where do you live?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:03PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:03PM (#660851)

        Yeah I still remember the day when jimmy carter created the sanctuary concept from thin air. It would be just a few months later that Reagan would own him and start helping the homeless.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by archfeld on Sunday April 01 2018, @01:32AM

      by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Sunday April 01 2018, @01:32AM (#661021) Journal

      How else is coffee roasted ?
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_roasting [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 30 2018, @09:38PM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday March 30 2018, @09:38PM (#660547)

    fried in oil (potato chips)

    Came here to flog the bigger sources of acrylamides, like potato chips.

    the intake level required to observe neuropathy (0.5 mg/kg body weight/day) was 500 times higher than the average dietary intake of acrylamide (1 μg/kg body weight/day). - wikipedia

    however, carcinogenic effects come on at much lower doses and the exact relationship is not understood at this time (nor likely to be well understood soon.)

    https://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/ChemicalContaminants/ucm053549.htm [fda.gov]

    Eat 4 ounces (113g) of Kettle Chips Lightly Salted Natural Gourmet Potato Chips (1265ppb measured acrylimides) and you've consumed 143ug of acrylamide. If you weigh 50kg, that's nearly 3x the "average dietary intake" quoted from Wikipedia above. You'd have to binge pretty heavily (20kg of chips) to hit the neuropathy levels, but California isn't labeling about neuropathy.

    For comparison, dark roast coffees run around 200-300 ppb acrylamides in ground form, and 5-10 ppb when brewed.

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    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday March 30 2018, @11:20PM (2 children)

      by frojack (1554) on Friday March 30 2018, @11:20PM (#660602) Journal

      to hit the neuropathy levels,

      Sentence seemed to make more sense when I substituted "naturopathy" for neuropathy, but then your link looked like tl;dr so I didn't pursue it too deeply.

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      • (Score: 5, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 30 2018, @11:34PM (1 child)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday March 30 2018, @11:34PM (#660609)

        If you're talking about homeopathy levels, then all you have to do is imagine the substance in your food and you've got a homeopathic dose.

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        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:38AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:38AM (#660657) Journal

          then all you have to do is imagine the substance in your food

          And the less you think about it, the stronger the dose!

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by chewbacon on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:04AM

    by chewbacon (1032) on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:04AM (#660643)

    Don't forget new car smell.