Dispensing and serving temperatures of coffee-based hot beverages
- 23.04.2018
- English Articles
- Lisa-Marie Verst
- Gertrud Winkler
- Dirk W. Lachenmeier
Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: August 10, 2017 | Revision accepted: January 4, 2018
Exploratory survey as a basis for cancer risk assessment
Introduction
In 1991, the lifestyle factor “coffee drinking” was evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the first time and it was categorized as group 2B: “Possibly carcinogenic to humans”. The rationale behind this was based on epidemiological studies available at the time indicating that coffee may increase the risk of bladder cancer. In addition, there were hypotheses regarding an association with breast cancer, colon cancer, and other types of cancer [1, 2].
25 years later, based on findings obtained in the intervening period, the IARC recategorized coffee as group 3, which means that coffee is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans. The 1991 hypothesis regarding bladder cancer has been rejected in numerous studies and the evidence of an association between coffee and other types of cancer has been evaluated as insufficient [1, 2].
Abstract
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has evaluated drinks that are consumed “very hot” (> 65 °C) as “probably carcinogenic to humans”. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to obtain an initial insight into the dispensing and serving temperatures of coffee-based hot beverages in the home and in the food service industry. Overall, the study recorded the serving temperatures of 356 coffees in the food service industry and the dispensing temperatures of 110 coffees in private households. The measured temperatures were on average 10 °C above the IARC threshold temperature both in the household and in the food service industry (mean value of all measurements: 75 °C, standard deviation: 5 °C). Furthermore, the cooling period, both with and without the addition of milk, should be taken into account. As a rule, a minimum cooling time of > 10 min or the addition of > 20 mL of cold milk is sufficient to cool coffee to temperatures < 65 °C. Generally speaking, from this study, it can be concluded that the recommendation should be to cool hot beverages before drinking in most cases, either by observing a waiting period or by adding milk.
Keywords: coffee, temperature, esophageal cancer, risk assessment
