US: Judge rules coffee must carry cancer warning

Superior Court judge Elihu Berle said that Starbucks as well as 90 other companies had failed to show that the threat from acrylamide, a carcinogen present in coffee, was insignificant.

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a non-profit group, sued Starbucks and the other firms under a state law requiring warnings on products containing cancer-causing chemicals.

The coffee industry claimed the chemical was present at harmless levels and argued that coffee was good for the body.

The case was brought under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, which was passed in 1986 and allows citizens and other to sue on behalf of the state.

Following the decision, William Murray, president and CEO of the National Coffee Association, said coffee “has been shown, over and over again, to be a healthy beverage”, adding that the ruling “does nothing to improve public health”.