Coffee pods: all contain toxic substances and pesticides

All the major coffee producers have entered the lucrative pod market, with espresso dispensed from vending machines, at home or in the office. But now it turns out the entire business has a real black hole: all pods, except those from a single manufacturer, contain pesticides and toxic substances.

The test carried out in the laboratories of the rigorous German magazine Oekotest leaves no room for doubt: of the 21 different types of coffee pods with the wording “Crema”, almost all (with the exception of Lidl) contain acrylamide, a chemical compound created during coffee roasting, potentially carcinogenic and, according to several scientists, harmful to DNA.

In addition to acrylamide, another substance detected by the test is furan, along with its derivatives, methylfurans. These are also formed during coffee roasting, and according to warnings from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), furan can cause long-term liver damage and, in high doses, has shown carcinogenic effects in animal tests. Finally, pesticide residues, starting with the herbicide glyphosate, widely used in agricultural crops but also much debated for its toxic effects on humans.

Read also:

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• Microplastics in Coca-Cola and Schweppes
• Dove Greenwashing: The Soap That Fills the Environment with Plastic
• Apulian aqueduct: the network has a hole and losses of over 40 percent.

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