Decaffeinated Coffee & the Cancer Scare

DECAFFEINATED COFFEE AND THE CANCER SCARE 

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Animal studies showing that methylene chloride becomes a carcinogen when inhaled caused some concern because methylene chloride was the solvent used to extract caffeine from coffee beans in the manufacture of decaffeinated coffee. However, when methylene chloride was added to drinking water fed to laboratory rats and mice, researchers found no toxic effects. They observed no toxicological responses of any kind either in rats that had consumed an amount of methylene chloride equivalent to the amount that would be ingested by drinking 120,000 cups of decaffeinated coffee per day or in mice that had consumed an amount equivalent to drinking 4.4 million cups of decaffeinated coffee per day. 

In addition, no increased risk of cancer was found in a study of thousands of workers exposed daily to inhaled methylene chloride studies done on humans do not always agree with those done on animals. Because of the initial concern, however, researchers sought alternative methods for extracting caffeine from coffee beans. It turned out that extraction by Carbon dioxide  at supercritical temperature and pressure is not only safer but better. This method is better because it extracts caffeine without simultaneously extracting some of the flavor compounds that are removed when methylene chloride is used. There is essentially no difference in flavor between regular coffee and coffee decaffeinated with Carbon dioxide.