A California Superior Court judge recently ruled that coffee within the state must carry cancer warnings due to a naturally-produced carcinogen called acrylamide. According to The Washington Post, The Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a non-profit, brought the case against Starbucks, Peets, 7-Eleven, and dozens of other companies. Settlements are potentially in order, as the council wants the companies to pay $2,500 per person exposed to acrylamide since 2002. Although acrylamide is a carcinogen, it is a very common one with skeptical relations to cancer. It is produced when baking and frying foods, as well as brewing coffee, and is present in fried potatoes (the nonprofit previously sued chip producers). According to Tim Carman of The Washington Post, the evidence that acrylamide causes cancer is light.
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