Is decaf coffee safe to drink?
Many brand-name coffee roasters use methylene chloride to remove caffeine from their beans, which may harm humans. Learn which brands use it and your best alternative for buying chemical-free decaf coffee beans.
Health advocates are growing concerned about the safety of decaf coffee. Their issue is with the process used to remove caffeine from coffee beans. The Clean Label Project (CLP) says many coffee roasters use methylene chloride to remove caffeine, which is commonly used in paint thinners and was banned by the EPA. They’re concerned that traces of the chemical could be harmful to humans.
CLP is pushing coffee roasters to include the decaffeination process on their labels, stop using EPA-banned chemicals, and adopt a solvent-free and chemical-free decaffeination method.
Most independent and local coffee roasters use safe and natural water-based methods and label their processes. However, many large and well-known brands don’t label their decaffeination processes and also use methylene chloride.
Decaf coffee with methylene chloride
These decaf coffees had methylene chloride detected in the beans.
- Amazon Fresh (Decaffeinated Colombia)
- Café Bustelo (Decaffeinated Café Molido)
- Gevali Kafee (Decaffeinated House Blend)
- Great Value (Decaffeinated Classic Roast)
- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Decaffeinated Breakfast Blend)
- Kirkland Signature (Decaffeinated Dark Roast)
- Kroger (Decaffeinated Classic)
- Maxwell House (Decaffeinated The Original Roast)
- Peet’s Coffee (Decaffeinated House Blend)
- Seattle’s Best (Decaffeinated Portside Blend)
Decaf coffees with unknown decaffeination process
These decaf coffees were tested, and methylene chloride wasn’t detected, but the decaffeination process is still unknown because the coffee roaster will not provide methodology details.
- Allegro Coffee (Decaffeinated Organic French Roast)
- Archer Farms (Decaffeinated House Blend)
- Caribou Coffee (Decaffeinated Caribou Blend)
- Community Coffee (Decaffeinated Café Special)
- Dazbog Coffee (Decaffeinated French Roast)
- Dunkin’ Donuts (Decaffeinated Medium Roast)
- Folgers (Decaffeinated Classic)
- Illy (Decaffeinated Illy Blend)
- Kicking Horse Coffee (Decaffeinated Dark)
- Nescafé (Decaffeinated House Blend)
- Peet’s Coffee (Decaffeinated Major Dickason’s Blend)
- Starbucks (Decaffeinated House Blend + Decaffeinated Caffè Verona)
- The Organic Coffee Co. (Decaffeinated Organic Gorilla)
- Tim Hortons (Decaffeinated Medium Roast)
Consider getting your decaf coffee from smaller roasters that use natural water-based methods. I subscribe to Trade, which sends me a different bag of decaf coffee every week from small local roasters across the U.S. None of them use methylene chloride in their decaffeination process, which puts me at ease for my health. If you want to try out Trade for yourself, you can get a free bag of coffee using this link.
About Jon Henshaw
Jon Henshaw started writing content to help others on the web in 1996. He's endlessly curious about human behavior (why we do what we do) and how we use technology daily. Jon has a bachelor's degree in Human Development and Family Studies and a master's degree in Psychology. He's married, has two adult children, and lives in Franklin, TN, USA.