Well, this is just gross.
After a number of incidents where people began experiencing allergies to their morning cup of coffee, an investigation determined the real reason behind the symptoms. Cockroaches.
University of Montana biology professor Douglas Emlen spoke to news.com.au where he told them a story of his own college professor that will make your skin crawl. Whilst on a journey together in 2009, Emlen became annoyed that his professor took a detour to find a cup of coffee made from freshly ground whole beans.
“I remember giving him a really hard time because we were wasting a lot of travel time trying to feed his addiction because he needed a coffee every couple of hours,” said Dr Emlen.
“And he finally explained to me he had to drink only whole bean fresh ground coffee — and it was because of cockroaches.”
As his professor was an entomology teacher, he became badly allergic to cockroaches from handling them so often. So, when he experienced the same symptoms from drinking coffee, he discovered that pre-ground coffee is kept in huge piles that often get infested with cockroaches. The roaches get ground up with the beans and voila, your morning brew.
Dr Emlen also said that, at the time, US defect standards allowed coffee beans to contain as much as 10 per cent ‘insect filth and insects’. “Technically speaking, if I’m not mistaken, the FDA regulates the per cent by dry weight of food stuffs like this that can be ground insect parts and make sure that it doesn’t end up being too much of the total,” he said.
PS, it’s the same with chocolate.
