A California judge ruled in March 2018 that coffee sold in the state must come with a cancer warning due to the presence of acrylamide, a compound that occurs naturally when foods like coffee beans are roasted at high temperatures. In high doses, acrylamide has been found to cause cancer in mice.
The National Coffee Association objected, calling the warning misleading. “Coffee has been shown, over and over again, to be a healthy beverage,” the group said. “This lawsuit…has confused consumers and does nothing to improve public health.”
CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus, director of the Westside Cancer Center at USC, also believes the warning is unwarranted.
“When you put a bold declaration that ‘X may cause cancer’ when there isn’t data to that effect in humans, to me it causes panic rather than informed knowledge,” he told “CBS This Morning.”
