Page 50 - #56 English

Cover Story

ROASTING

THE STEALTH KILLER OF OUR HEALTH

If someone says coffee roasting may cause cancer, will cause the bronchus to narrow or
then, I believe, a lot of roasters will disagree. However, even closed shut, right now there are
according to one research results, it is a serious matter. no scientific methods to cure this.
Earlier in Europe and America, the Food and Drugs De- Thus, the infected will either die
partments listed coffee as a drink, which has high amount young or have a lung transplantation.
of acrylamide. In 2014, the European Food Department In the report, it showed that diacetyl
asked for some opinions from the scientists whether there also exists in coffee. To people
is a saving from the poisonous gas while roasting coffee working in coffee roasting for a long
beans. In 2016, the U.S Health Department announced a time, it is a serious health problem, that
health warning for people working in coffee beans roast- cannot be ignored.
ing areas for the first time, it certainly got the attention
of some organizations, so they wanted to do more re-
search on this serious matter.
As the third wave of specialty coffee’s culture is
being popularized, more and more cafes, even coffee
lovers, tend to choose self-roasted beans, as they want
the most fresh coffee. But no matter how popular self-
roasting has become, does a roaster realize how danger-
ous the gas, released during the roasting, can be or what
is the correct way to process this gas?
Does The Gas, Released from Roasting, Cause
Popcorn Lung Disease?

According to a report, made by American famous Coffee Roasting and cancerogen
website, Alternet, in September 2016, people working
in coffee roasting may have a possibility of having During the process of coffee roasting, beans will
Popcorn Lung Disease. The so called Popcorn Lung release smell and also a chemical substance called
means, if people inhale the chemical substance called acrylamide. According to the results of Hong Kong
diacetyl released from making popcorn over a long Health Department, food that has carbohydrates, es-
time, their lung will have some serious damage. Because pecially the plant food, that is with rich carbohydrates
a lot of popcorn workers got this lung disease from but has less proteins, will release acrylamide under a
work, this disease is named Popcorn Lung. This disease high temperature (>120℃). For example, coffee beans,

50