美國加州高等法院今年3月裁定，星巴克公司等咖啡業者在加州販售的咖啡產品必須標示致癌警語。不過美國食品藥物管理局（FDA）日前去函加州州政府，敦促加州尊重科學，終結與咖啡的戰爭。FDA局長高特里布表示，這樣的警語可能誤導消費者，以為喝咖啡有害健康，而事實上喝咖啡可能對健康有益。
咖啡高溫烘焙的過程中會產生化學物質「丙烯醯胺」，而丙烯醯胺被加州1986年通過的《65號提案》列為致癌物。非營利組織「毒物教育和研究諮詢委員會」於2010年提告，稱咖啡含有可能致癌的化學物質，依據加州65號提案，應該標示警語。今年3月洛杉磯法官做出需要加註致癌警語的裁定。
咖啡業者並不否認咖啡中含有丙烯醯胺，但辯稱其含量對人體無虞，對健康利大於弊，因此他們的產品應當豁免。上個月加州環境健康危害評估辦公室提議咖啡業者可以豁免於65號提案的法令規定，預計將於年底做出最後決定。
FDA的信函強烈支持該提議。局長高特里布在聲明中說，作為一個以科學為基礎的機構，FDA有責任確保食品標籤的內容準確、不能誤導消費者，如果一條州法要求的食品標籤包含不實或誤導的內容，FDA可以決定介入。
Ensuring that food is safe and truthfully labeled is one of our fundamental responsibilities at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Consumers deserve accurate information about the food they eat and how it can affect their health and nutrition. That’s why Congress entrusted the FDA to serve as the nation’s expert on food safety and labeling and to craft predictable, uniform federal requirements on matters within our jurisdiction. Consistent with that authority, we work to provide the best advice possible to Americans about the foods they eat based on the most recent scientific information, taking into account the food’s benefits in addition to any potential health risks.
Part of our mission in this space means ensuring that food product labeling doesn’t contain false or misleading statements about safety or nutrition. This includes statements that food manufacturers make on their own initiative. But it also includes statements that may be compelled under state law.
Simply put, if a state law purports to require food labeling to include a false or misleading statement, the FDA may decide to step in.
That’s why we were deeply concerned when a court recently ruled that a California law – known as Proposition 65 – may require coffee sold in California to be labeled with a cancer warning because of the presence of a chemical called acrylamide. Under Proposition 65, California requires that certain products contain cancer warnings if they will expose consumers to chemicals that California health authorities have identified as causing cancer. But requiring a cancer warning on coffee, based on the presence of acrylamide, would be more likely to mislead consumers than to inform them.
Acrylamide can form in many foods during high-temperature cooking, such as frying, roasting and baking. Acrylamide in food forms from sugars and an amino acid that are naturally present in food. It doesn’t come from food packaging or the environment. In coffee, acrylamide forms during the roasting of coffee beans. Although acrylamide at high doses has been linked to cancer in animals, and coffee contains acrylamide, current science indicates that consuming coffee poses no significant risk of cancer. This finding was reflected in a comprehensive report by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The good news is that, based on this science, the California agency that administers Proposition 65 has proposed a regulation to exempt coffee from a Proposition 65 cancer warning.
小編評：這個案子大家可以看看下面連結回顧一下～
然後在來回顧應該在咖啡上標示「因為烘焙咖啡含有丙烯醯胺，您只要長期、持續地每天攝取超過40杯，將增加癌症發生的機率」，這樣消費者就可以買單了。