Is decaf coffee bad for your health? Here's what to know

If you enjoy the taste of coffee but don’t want caffeine’s side effects, decaffeinated coffee with 97 per cent of the stimulant removed is an alternative for your morning brew.Health advocacy groups in the U.S. recently petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of methylene chloride in the decaffeination process owing to cancer concerns.

There are several ways to remove caffeine from coffee beans. The most common of those, called the direct method or the European method, involves steaming green unroasted coffee beans to open their pores and make caffeine accessible. The beans are then rinsed with methylene chloride or ethyl acetate to extract the caffeine. Once the caffeine is removed, the beans are washed, dried and roasted.

Health risks of methylene chloride When inhaled, methylene chloride can cause wheezing, shortness of breath, headaches, dizziness, nausea and memory loss.Owing to its toxicity, in 2019 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the chemical from being manufactured and sold as a paint remover. According to Health Canada, data indicate actual levels of methylene chloride in dry decaffeinated coffee are much lower than the permitted limit.

Current petition to ban methylene chloride Last November, the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund, along with its partners, sent a petition to the FDA to revoke its approval for four carcinogenic chemicals approved for use in food. One was methylene chloride. What does Health Canada say? Methylene chloride was assessed in Canada in 1993 and was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” based on available evidence at the time.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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