You have probably heard of acrylamide before. The substance is formed, for example, when fries are fried, but also when coffee is roasted. But don’t worry: you can continue to enjoy your favorite drink without worrying. Also several cups a day. You can find out here why this is the case and which types of coffee have the acrylamide content reduced to a minimum.
Why acrylamide in coffee is unavoidable
Enjoying coffee is a feast for the senses: that scent of freshly ground beans. The development of the taste on the tongue after the first sip. The delicious aromas are only made possible by the roasting of the coffee beans, more precisely: the so-called Maillard reaction. Amino acids and sugars are converted into new chemical compounds under the influence of heat. They determine the color and aroma of the roasted coffee beans. However, the process also produces acrylamide; a substance that is considered potentially hazardous to health.
If you’re wondering whether you have to do without your beloved coffee now, we can reassure you: no, you don’t have to. Because even if coffee cannot be completely acrylamide-free, the substance is only contained in very small quantities.
What is acrylamide?
Acrylamide is always formed when we bake, roast, fry or roast something, for example when making French fries, crisps, biscuits or crispbread. It is formed from a reaction between sugar and the protein building block asparagine at temperatures of 120 degrees Celsius. Above 180 degrees Celsius, the formation of acrylamide in food increases dramatically. In contrast to roasting and frying, according to the current state of research, little or no acrylamide is produced during cooking and steaming.
In animal experiments, the substance proved to be carcinogenic and mutagenic. However, there is still no reliable knowledge about the effect on humans. Irrespective of this, minimizing exposure to acrylamide is considered preventative health protection.
Enjoying roasted coffee is harmless with regard to acrylamid
According to a spokesman for the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), drinking several cups of coffee a day is “not a concern”. And apart from the notorious acrylamide, coffee also has a lot of properties that make it a healthy drink in many ways.
To be on the safe side and to protect consumers preventively, the EU set stricter production guidelines and new limit values for acrylamide in food as early as 2018. These are the current EU limits for acrylamide in coffee:
Roasted coffee: 400 micrograms per kilogram
Instant coffee: 850 micrograms/kg
Substitute coffee made from grain: 500 micrograms/kg
Substitute coffee made from chicory: 4000 micrograms/kg
These values are regularly checked by the EU and adjusted if necessary.
Also good to know: The guide value for roasted coffee only applies to roasted beans. The acrylamide content of the extract brewed from it, which we drink, is, therefore, to be classified as significantly lower.
Which coffee is low in acrylamide?
You may be wondering if there is any coffee that is completely free of acrylamide. The answer is: no. Due to the roasting process, all roasted coffee always contains acrylamide, and the substance can also be found in organic coffee. Instant coffee and coffee substitutes such as grain coffee contain even more acrylamide than conventional coffee beans because they are processed in a complex manner.
However, there are ways in which coffee manufacturers can influence the formation of acrylamide during roasting. The secret is: long-term roasting at relatively low temperatures.
Long-term roasting not only has the advantage that less acrylamide is produced than when the coffee beans are roasted at high heat and only briefly. It also brings the following benefits:
The aromas in the coffee are more diverse and finer than with a quick, very hot roast.
Unwanted acids can evaporate particularly well.
Accordingly, the coffee is very digestible.
Apart from that, according to a study by the University of Porto, dark roasts have particularly little acrylamide, which is typical for Italian espresso, for example. And the type of bean also plays a role: roasted Arabica beans generally contain less of the substance than Robusta beans.