Latest / The food files / Decaf's Paint-Stripper Problem? How Methylene Chloride Takes the Caffeine Out

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Decaf's Paint-Stripper Problem? How Methylene Chloride Takes the Caffeine Out · The food files

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Today we head over to coffee. Actually, decaf. So you
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: pour yourself a cup of decaf, and there's a fair
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: chance it started with a chemical better known from the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hardware store, methylene chloride. It was for decades the active
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ingredient in many paint strippers. The National Coffee Association says
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: most American decaf is made this way, using what the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: trade calls the European method. No independent figure confirms that share,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and in 1989 the FDA put it under 10%. So
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: treat most as the industry's own claims. Starbucks has told
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: customers and reporters that most of its decaf uses the
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: direct contact method, which for Starbucks means methylene chloride. Here's
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: how it works. Green, unroasted beans are steamed to open
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: them up, then rinsed in the solvent for hours, and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the solvent binds the coffee. It isn't perfectly selective, so
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: some flavor compounds leave too. The beans are steamed again
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to dry the solvent off, dried and later roasted above
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: 400 degrees. Fahrenheit. Methylene chloride boils at about 104, so
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: nearly all of it is gone before it ever reaches
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: your cup. Nearly all, not all. The FDA allows up
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to 10 parts per million in decaf roast and instant coffee.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: In January 2020, the Clean Labor Project published tests on
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: 25 best-selling decaf products and detected methylene chloride in 10.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Four were between 50 to 89 parts per billion. Now remember,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the FDA allows up to 10 parts per million. roughly
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: 100 times under the limit on the ones they tested.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Six were above 90 parts per billion, and the report
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: never said how far above. Is that dangerous? Well, methylene
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: chloride causes cancer in lab animals, and the World Health
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Organization Cancer Agency rates it probably carcinogenic to humans. But
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: in 1985, using worst-case assumptions, the FDA estimated the lifetime
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: cancer risk for heavy decaf drinkers at under one in
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: a million and called it essentially non-existent. Later, FDA tests
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: had found brood levels about a hundredth of that estimate.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: The clearer hazard has always been for workers who breathe
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the vapor. The legal fight is over the Delaney Clause,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: which bans any food additive shown to cause cancer in
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: animals no matter the dose, which is usually what Europe follows.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: In December 2023, the Environmental Defense Fund and partners petitioned
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the FDA to remove methylene chloride and three other solvents
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: from the list of approved food uses. The FDA reopened
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: comments in May 2026, and they closed on June 29th,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and as of November 2026, there's no decision on decaf.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: The EPA banned most uses of methylene chloride in 2024,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: but food is the FDA's turf, so decaf was never covered.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: In September 2026, the Federal Appeals Court threw out that
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: EPA rule anyway. The alternatives are ethyl esotate. Carbon dioxide
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: in water. Ethyl acetate occurs naturally in fruit and can
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: be made from sugar cane, so it's still those natural
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: or sugar cane decaf. But it's still a solvent. Pressurized
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: carbon dioxide pulls the caffeine out and then simply evaporates.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Swiss water and mountain water use a green coffee extract
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and carbon filters with no solvent at all. Peet's says
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: all its decaf has been water processed in 2022. So
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: read the bag. Swiss water, mountain water, or CO2 means
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: no chemical solvent. Water process usually means the same thing,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: but the term is unregulated. Sugar cane means ethyl acetate.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: If the bag says nothing, you don't know. So ask
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the roaster.