The California coffee vs. cancer controversy is over. The long-standing legal challenge ended in early June when a state regulator found a way to circumvent a court ruling and then convinced the state’s Office of Administrative Law to agree.
The debate started after California voters in 1986 approved Proposition 65, a law that established a list of cancer-causing chemicals. On that list was the chemical compound acrylamide which is found in trace amounts in roasted coffee.
Under the law, consumers must be informed if the product they were about to buy contains a chemical on the list. When it discovered coffee shops were not posting signs warning their customers, the non-profit Council for Education and Research on Toxics filed a 2010 lawsuit to force compliance and listed 90 coffee sellers as defendants. The coffee industry objected saying there was no scientific evidence to support the claim coffee was a delivery system.
A California judge, however, ruled in favor of the plaintiff in March 2018 and signs went up to let coffee drinkers know there was acrylamide in their coffee. The debate came to an end in June when the state regulator in charge of the cancer-causing chemical list recommended coffee receive an exception. The Office of Administrative Law agreed, signing off on the exemption and ending the controversy.