Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. It may be associated with breakfast due to caffeine’s ability to give us energy, but in fact, it is a drink that can be consumed at any time in many ways and even has a social element such as “let’s meet for coffee”. ” Although the benefits of coffee are slowly becoming known, there has been a debate that has accompanied this drink for years.

And not because of the caffeine, but because of the lack of it. So much so that decaffeinated coffee may be in danger, at least in the United States.

Decaffeinated. The history of decaf coffee is extremely intriguing. Caffeine had been isolated from coffee thanks to a process carried out by the German chemist Runge in 1820, but in 1903 an interesting incident occurred to Ludwig Roselius: an entire shipment of beans was soaked with coffee water. He didn’t think much about it and dried them, fried them, tasted them… and sold them. But after a few days, customers complained: they said the coffee wasn’t working and they couldn’t stay ‘awake’ anymore. Today we know that this may be a placebo effect, but it is clear that caffeine affects the body.

We currently know of three decaffeination processes. One of these is the chemical with which we treat coffee beans with “solvents” such as ethyl acetate or methylene chloride to separate the caffeine. Another method is to use water, as in the Roselius shipment, and soak the coffee beans in hot water to separate the caffeine. The water is then treated with a filter that removes caffeine, and then the beans are soaked in this liquid again, reabsorbing some of the properties lost in the process. This does not remove all caffeine and is an expensive process.

Finally, there is another physical method used in very high-quality coffees, which consists in removing caffeine thanks to a system that combines a CO2-rich environment and a pressure of 275 atmospheres, which dissolves this part of the coffee. This is not the most common due to the cost of performing the procedure.

A decaffeinated coffee against cancer, please. The chemical method is most common in commercial coffees, and before tackling existing substances, Roselius himself experimented with benzene: washing the beans for 13 hours with a mixture of seawater and a benzene-rich solution that killed the caffeine. Today, it is a method that is no longer used because we know that benzene is carcinogenic.

The problem is that the debate over decaf coffee is back, and it’s so strong that some are calling for it to be banned in the United States. Because? Because there is an organization that thinks methylene chloride may be associated with cancer.

Health comes into play. It is estimated that 26 million Americans drink coffee at least once a day. This is a significant amount and most of these coffees will have been made following the chemical decaffeination process using methylene chloride. That’s where the problem lies for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor.

“Methylene chloride is used in a variety of industrial processes in many different industries, including paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing, paint thinner production, and metal cleaning and degreasing,” says OSHA, which considers this methylene chloride to be a possible carcinogen.

Various banning attempts. This solvent has been in the eye of the storm before. In 1987, a group seeking to ban the use of methylene chloride in the food industry filed a lawsuit against the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) seeking to remove methylene chloride from the dietary equation. However, the judge ruled that the FDA was still evaluating the legality of the product, so the case was dismissed; However, in the years since then, there have been attempts to re-sue companies over the use of methylene chloride.

In January of this year, the FDA filed a petition requesting the removal of certain potentially harmful substances from foods and beverages. Benzene, trichloroethylene, ethylene dichloride and methylene chloride star in this list.

Some yes, some no. Frankly, if this proposal gets the green light and methylene chloride solutions are higher than the new regulations stipulate, much of the decaffeinated coffee industry could be brought to an end, at least in the United States. This does not mean that decaffeinated coffee is in danger, because as we have seen there are other methods that do not involve the use of this solvent, but who knows what will happen in price, given that alternative methods are slightly more expensive? from this coffee.

What’s interesting is that there are people already conducting studies to see if there are traces of methylene chloride in commercial coffees. In particular, it was the Clean Label Project that found traces of solvents in coffees from Amazon Fresh, Bustelo, Gevalia Kaffe, Great Value, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Kirkland Signature, Kroger, Maxwell House or Seattle’s Best.

Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Folgers, Caribou Coffee, ILLY, Allegro Coffee, Archer Farms, Community Coffee, Dazbog Coffee, Kicking Horse Coffee, NESCAFÉ, The Organic Coffee Co. or decaf from chains like Tim Hortons found no trace of caffeine. . In the case of Peet’s Coffee, they found traces in the ‘Decaf House Blend’ but not in the ‘Decaf Major Dickason Blend’.

Image | Natham Dumlao

in Xataka | I had a muffin mixed with coffee with milk. It was so delicious I won’t make it again