What are mycotoxins?
Mycotoxins are a variety of toxic substances produced by microfungi and molds. They can occur anywhere mold can occur, especially in toasty, moist conditions, which means they can also be found in food and coffee as these goods move from production to consumption. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists cereals, nuts, spices, dried fruits, apples, dried chili peppers (or “chilli”), and coffee beans as foods on which mycotoxin-producing molds can grow. Please remember that the presence of mold does not mean the presence of mycotoxins or the certainty that mycotoxins will grow. There are many different mycotoxins and not all of them grow on all foods.
Which mycotoxins can be found in which foods?
Some common mycotoxins you may hear about include aflatoxins (which tend to grow on grains, nuts, and spices), patulin (which favors apples and apple products), deoxynivalenol or “DON,” which often attacks cereal grains, and ochratoxin A (OTA). Aflatoxins and OTA are the mycotoxins that people are most concerned about in coffee.
What health risks do mold and mycotoxins in my coffee pose?
OTA is considered potentially harmful to the kidneys, as well as being risky to the immune system, as well as being carcinogenic to rats and mice. There are currently no federally regulated limits for OTAs in the United States. In the EU, regulatory standards prohibit exceeding 3.0 µg/kg of OTA in roasted coffee.
Aflatoxins are regulated in several parts of the world and the US has set a limit of 20 ppb for all foods. Interestingly, science has shown that coffee contains properties, such as caffeine, that can inhibit the damage caused by aflatoxinsespecially on the liver. (The news is that this means decaf beans are more likely to contain aflatoxins, although a good decaf maker will monitor carefully to control moisture along the way.)
OK. Are there really mycotoxins in my coffee or what?
“There’s no way to tell if coffee has been contaminated with OTA unless it’s tested in a lab,” says Emma Sage, director of educational resources at Coffee Quality Institute“These mycotoxins can be formed during coffee processing or even during storage if less than ideal methods or inappropriate conditions are used,” he explains.
While some brands advertise their coffee as “mould-free” or “mycotoxin-free” (and some even test it!), without knowing the company’s standards, you won’t know for sure what that means. If you consume grains, dried chili peppers or dried fruit, you are already exposed to low levels of mycotoxins, so keep this in mind before pouring freshly brewed coffee into a potted plant or relying on marketing claims that a particular coffee is “mycotoxin-free” and so on.
So should I worry about mycotoxins in coffee or not?
Worrying is a personal choice. If you’re looking for an authoritative stance on how much mycotoxins end up in coffee or how risky they are to you, you’ll get a different answer (or none at all!) depending on who you ask.
Organizations representing the financial interests of the consumer coffee industry will ensure that mycotoxins are not a problem. Dr. Mark Corey, the company’s chief scientific and regulatory affairs officer National Coffee Associationtells Sprudge that “mycotoxins are not present in amounts that would pose a safety concern,” adding impressively that “the average adult would have to consume up to 410,000 8-ounce servings of brewed coffee per day to exceed the safety levels established by scientific studies.” Dr. Corey quoted it’s a scientific studyfunded by the National Coffee Association.
On the other hand, many companies that want to ride the wave of the wellness movement have started selling these “mold-free” coffees, and some are arguably more legitimate than others. If a mycotoxin-free coffee brand is for you, make sure you choose one that is clear about its testing process and results. One such brand that does the testing is Coffee of Puritya South Carolina brand that makes health claims.
“Mycotoxins are one of the biggest controversies in coffee,” says Ildi Revi, Purity’s Chief Coffee Officer. “The bottom line is I don’t want it to seem like it’s irrelevant, but at the same time I don’t want it to be alarming,” he says.
Not wanting to sound the alarm too loudly, Revi described to Sprudge a litany of ways mold can get into coffee, beyond just the processing at the point of production—for example, in the roastery itself.Roasters put their hands into the coffee, caress the coffee,” says Revi. He adds that roasters who scoop green and roasted coffee with the same tools or cold roasted beans by quenching them with water also risk introducing mold and potential mycotoxins.
But doesn’t smoking kill the mycotoxins in coffee?
Roasting not proven to completely eliminate mycotoxinsbut if you love a very gloomy roast and hate mycotoxins, you’re in luck! “The darker the roast, the more likely the OTA is to be broken down,” says CQI’s Sage. “But that comes with some trade-offs, not the least of which is flavor.”
I mainly drink organic specialty-grade coffee. Do I still need to worry about this?
There is a school of thought that holds that since specialty grade coffee achieves a score (over 80 points in the standard), Specialty Coffee Association scale) would eliminate visibly moldy coffees by default, so the number of coffees containing mold and potentially producing mycotoxins sold to specialist roasters and importers would be negligible.
However, studies have shown that mycotoxins can be found even in specialty coffees. (It has been established that mold and fungi can develop in coffee at stages beyond initial processing.) How large of a problem this is in the specialty coffee industry remains an open question – but we were unable to obtain views from the Specialty Coffee Association, which is not We managed to obtain a comment on this matter.
I have already read hundreds of words about mycotoxins in coffee and I still don’t know what to think about it.
Look – we’re all just trying to live, right? Maybe you’re a city dweller and you’re already breathing in a lot of pollutants, or maybe you live in a rural area that’s increasingly susceptible to wildfires. Breathing air tries to live, drinking coffee tries to live – do we even have a choice? At any given time, consider your options and make a decision as best you can based on the information available.
If you want to buy coffee that you can be more confident has been tested for mold and mycotoxins, you have the following options. Whatever you decide, we support you. We will be here for you… trying not to touch the coffee.
