What They Don’t Tell You About Decaf Coffee That You Should Absolutely Know | Episode 111

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are talking about the ongoing Class II recall of Our Family’s Traverse City Cherry-Flavored Decaf Light Roast Ground Coffee from the parent company Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA due to mislabeling.

They use this opportunity to share some little-known truths about decaf coffee that consumers should be aware of, such as the actual caffeine content of decaf coffee, and the fact that they might be ingesting harmful chemicals when going for decaf coffee.

In this episode:

💩 [02:00] The current mislabelled decaf coffee recall 

💩 [03:32] The caffeine content of decaf coffee (no, it’s not 0%)

💩 [04:09] Drinking decaf versus regular coffee

💩 [05:03] Matt’s and Francine’s daily caffeine intake

💩 [07:34] Matt’s and Francine’s different opinions on black coffee

💩 [09:38] When drinking a caffeinated decaf coffee can be harmful

💩 [11:32] Debatable coffee flavors

💩 [12:48] Decaffeination processes, including a very unsafe one

💩 [14:47] The danger of Methylene Chloride

💩 [16:02] The use of dangerous chemicals in house flipping (and food?)

💩 [20:00] Small doses of harmful chemicals add up over time

💩 [23:21] Details on the recalled product, so you can send it back if you have it

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

If you’re curious about the movie Sausage Party, you can watch it here, but again, we don’t recommend it.

Catch up with the episode we thought would lose us a lot of listeners, but actually didn’t, Episode 108 | How Changes in U.S. Food Agencies Are Putting Food Safety in America at Risk.

Learn everything about Clean Label Project’s findings on the dangerous chemicals present in decaf coffee here.

Catch up on our interview with Deborah Blum, Episode 85 | The Road to Food Safety with Deborah Blum, Award-Winning Author of “The Poison Squad”

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Methylene chloride is an active ingredient in paint thinner that was recently banned by the FDA. So, you could not use this product to scrape paint off of your walls. It’s too dangerous for that, but to throw into some coffee beans to get rid of caffeine? No problem. That sounds like a good application for this thing.” – Matt Regusci

“Somebody said to me the other day, ‘I just drink black [coffee].’ Okay, well, you stick to your black. You don’t want anything interesting or different in your life. That’s wonderful. Don’t go out on a limb and have any risk because you might like something different.” – Francine L Shaw

This episode is sponsored by Eagle Protect.

Did you know you can find fecal coliform on over 50% of gloves?  It’s astounding to learn that many of the gloves coming into our country are contaminated.  But Eagle Protect is changing that. 

They test every single lot of their Eagle Delta Zero™ gloves for microbial contamination.

This is a company truly committed to food safety. So please check them out at eagleprotect.com and get your gloves tested! Let’s not forget… Don’t eat poop!

Connect with Francine, Matt, and the “Don’t Eat Poop!” show on LinkedIn! 

Check out Francine’s book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!