SACRAMENTO, Calif. 鈥 It turns out that California and the Trump administration do agree on at least one thing: Don鈥檛 mess with coffee.
Trump鈥檚 hand-picked food and drug czar, Scott Gottlieb, that he 鈥渟trongly supports鈥 a proposal by officials in Sacramento to exempt the morning elixir from the state鈥檚 list of known cancer-causing compounds despite a court order to the contrary.
I think coffee is fantastic. I think it鈥檚 good for me, good for my heart, makes me happy.
Photo by Ana B. Ibarra/California Healthline
Java fans received the news nonchalantly, making it clear they would not be put off their cup of Joe no matter what Gottlieb or state officials had to say about it.
Sid Silverthorn, sipping his favorite hot beverage outside a Sacramento Starbucks, said he鈥檇 been treated for prostate cancer a couple of decades back and since his recovery has been vigilant about products that could harm his health.
Coffee, he said, is not one of them.
鈥淚 think coffee is fantastic,鈥 the 88-year-old said with relish. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 good for me, good for my heart, makes me happy.鈥
Despite the passion of hard-core consumers like Silverthorn, vendors worry that cancer warnings posted on their doors wouldn鈥檛 exactly be seen as welcome signs.
鈥淚 think it would evoke a visceral reaction,鈥 said Lauren Taber, spokeswoman for Pachamama Coffee Cooperative in Sacramento. 鈥淧eople go into their local coffee shop and think 鈥榃ait, I can get cancer from this?鈥欌
In this state, coffee drinks can be an art form 鈥 with devotees routinely laying out $5 or more for triple non-fat spiced lattes, extra hot or upside down. But that has clashed in this case with another state obsession: triple-checking the purity of food and drink.
The whole brewhaha started with an eight-year-old lawsuit that culminated earlier this year with a Los Angeles Superior Court that coffee must be labeled a carcinogen under California鈥檚 , a law that requires public disclosure of chemicals determined by the state to pose a risk of cancer.
I think it would evoke a visceral reaction ... People go into their local coffee shop and think, 鈥榃ait, I can get cancer from this?'
Photo by Ana B. Ibarra/California Healthline
At issue is a chemical called acrylamide, a byproduct of coffee roasting also present in many other foods that are roasted, fried or baked. It is of potential cancer-causing agents, but had not been widely associated with coffee until the lawsuit. Industry officials argue that a cancer warning is off base, because coffee contains only trace amounts of acrylamide.
The state agency that oversees Proposition 65, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, responded in June to the judge鈥檚 ruling with a to exempt coffee from the cancer disclosure law.
The agency pointed to a by the World Health Organization鈥檚 international Agency for Research on Cancer that concluded there was 鈥渋nadequate evidence鈥 to link coffee drinking to malignancies. In fact, the report found that coffee was associated with a reduced risk of liver and uterine cancer and was not a cause of breast, pancreatic or prostate cancer.
The agency aims to finalize its proposed regulation by the end of this year.
Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a cancer warning on coffee 鈥渨ould be more likely to mislead consumers than to inform them.鈥 And, he said, it could violate a federal law that prohibits misleading labels on food.
But at this point I don鈥檛 think it makes a difference to people. ... We鈥檙e all addicted.
Photo by Ana B. Ibarra/California Healthline
The coffee industry鈥檚 main trade group, which counts Starbucks and Dunkin鈥 Donuts among its members, warmly welcomed Gottlieb鈥檚 support.
鈥淣ow that science has so comprehensively established the facts on coffee, we believe it is incumbent on regulators to give citizens confidence in what they are consuming,鈥 Bill Murray, CEO and president of the , said in an email.
Kirsten Richardson, 30, a North Carolina resident who was visiting Sacramento this week and stopped in for a vanilla latte at The Mill, a local coffee shop, said she was glad to hear the FDA had vindicated her favorite drink.
鈥淏ut at this point I don鈥檛 think it makes a difference to people,鈥 she added. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all addicted.鈥
This story was produced by聽, which publishes聽, an editorially independent service of the聽.
