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c CTI Class

What are mycotoxins? They sound deadly! Does your processing of coffee cherries involves a fermentation
coffee have mycotoxins in it? I’m allergic to myco- stage where mold can form on the green coffee beans;
toxins. so Bulletproof only buys coffees that have gone through
a newer style of processing usually referred to as Eco-
Short Answer： Don’t worry about it, roasting kills pulping, which uses reduced water and a mechanical
whatever miniscule amounts may exist in coffee. demucilager and washer, most commonly a Penagos
Long Answer： machine, to separate bean from cherry.
Mycotoxins are mold byproducts
of fermentation processes, including all green coffee There is a kernel of truth here that makes the
processing to some degree, which the Bulletproof com- resulting exaggeration attractive: traditional coffee
pany claims make it into your roasted coffee beverage processing does involve some degree of fermentation,
and interfere with energy and brain function. How- which can cause mold, and eco-pulped coffees in fact
ever, research shows that mycotoxins do not survive do not meaningfully ferment during the cherry pro-
the 450 degree coffee roasting process at any meaning- cessing stage. However the wet beans from eco-pulping
ful concentration. Also, mycotoxins are found in all must still be dried as in other processing methods, and
sorts of food in trace amounts (including breastmilk), this opens up even eco-pulped beans to the potential
with no observable health issues. of mold forming. More to the point though, any sort
In coffee terms, Bulletproof are claiming that both of mold formation is wildly detrimental to coffee flavor,
traditional natural (dry) processing and washed (wet) so every step of coffee production has been carefully
considered to minimize mold, and it is all but guaran-
teed that any specialty grade coffee you are drinking
is completely free of any mold defects.
However, even for green coffee samples con-
taminated with mold, the health risks of drinking
the actual roasted coffee have been found to be all
but nonexistent. Way back in 1980, a meta-analysis
study of mold and coffee found that: “Because of the
extremely low frequency of findings, the low levels
of toxins, and the experimental data showing 70-80%
destruction by the roasting process of toxin added
to green coffee, further study on this topic has been
discontinued.”

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