There may be traces of tiny cockroaches in your coffee, but the FDA says it’s OK

The coffee you drink every morning may make you want to stop, as it may be hiding a surprise ingredient – ​​tiny traces of cockroaches. Although this sounds worrisome, food safety regulators say it’s completely normal and safe.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that small amounts of insect contamination are unavoidable in large-scale food production. For raw coffee beans, before roasting and grinding, a batch is only considered problematic if more than 10% of the beans are damaged by insects.

Whole coffee beans are much less likely to contain bugs than pre-processed coffee. Grinding the beans not only gives your coffee a fresher, better taste, but it also reduces the small risk of unwanted extra substances.

According to the FDA website, “Insect dirt and maggots do not exceed 10% of the total coffee beans, by count, that are insect-infested or insect-damaged.”

The idea that coffee may contain cockroaches is not new. It first emerged in the 1980s, when some people noticed that pre-ground coffee caused similar allergic reactions to cockroaches.

According to food regulators, cockroaches are naturally attracted to the strong smell of coffee. When coffee is stored in warehouses, it is possible for small insects to get into it.

Because there can be so many cockroaches in a batch, it is almost impossible to remove every one and that is why the FDA allows up to 10% of raw coffee beans to be damaged by insects.

They are considered safe and do not affect your health.

According to the FDA’s Food Defect Level Handbook, cocoa and coffee beans have clear safety limits.

For cocoa beans, a batch is considered safe if less than 4% of the beans are moldy, less than 4% of the beans are infested or damaged by insects, and less than 6% are either moldy or damaged by insects.

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For green coffee beans, a batch is unsafe if 10% or more of the beans are insect-infested or damaged. Similarly, if 10% or more of the beans are moldy, the batch is considered contaminated.

Taking the idea of ​​insects in coffee even further, an insect museum in Beijing recently introduced coffee made from ground cockroach powder. The drink also includes dried yellow flour worms, making a very unusual drink.

According to Chinese doctors, yellow mealworms are high in protein and may also help boost the immune system.

Don’t Worry, There Are Acceptable Levels of Ground Up Cockroaches In Coffee Tins