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This is an article from fox news
Milk? Sugar? Cockroach?
A doctor in the U.K. has rocked TikTok by alleging that some pre-ground coffee contains a percentage of crushed cockroaches – and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indeed deems that the slim figure won’t harm humans.
Dr. Karan Rajan is a National Health Service surgeon in London, and has shot to stardom on TikTok for posting videos about marvelous medical facts and combatting misinformation about science, The Guardian reports. Recently, Rajan has gotten people talking by highlighting the chilling connection between coffee and cockroaches, in a quick clip that’s been viewed over 1.6 million times.
“Just so you know if you drink coffee, you’re also consuming cockroaches,” he began the viral video. “Pre-ground coffee, like you get in most stores, contain ground-up cockroaches. A certain percentage of coffee beans becomes infected with cockroaches and other insects.
“Usually they can’t be processed out completely. So they just get roasted and ground up with the coffee beans,” he said. “Most food authorities allow a certain percentage of bug parts in our food… If you’re allergic to cockroaches, I’d stay away from pre-ground coffee,” he joked.
Dr. Karan Rajan of the National Health Service has gone viral for highlighting the chilling connection between coffee and cockroaches, in a quick clip that’s been viewed over 1.6 million times on TikTok.
Dr. Karan Rajan of the National Health Service has gone viral for highlighting the chilling connection between coffee and cockroaches, in a quick clip that’s been viewed over 1.6 million times on TikTok. (iStock)Despite 150,000 likes, many TikTokers agreed the not-so-fun fact nixed their craving for that next cup.
“I could have gone my WHOLE LIFE without knowing this,” one wailed.
“Thank God I don’t drink coffee,” another agreed.
Sillier coffee connoisseurs, meanwhile, weren’t so bugged out by the factoid.
“Well I guess it’s extra protein,” one teased.
“Anybody for a Starbugs[?]” another invited, in a clever play on the name of the popular coffee chain.
It’s unclear which statistics Dr. Rajan was referring to specifically, but current FDA guidance seems to confirm his comments about insects and green coffee beans, if not cockroaches specifically. According to the FDA’s Food Defect Levels Handbook, green coffee beans are only considered defective for insects and insect filth at an average of 10% or more by count — so anything less than that is no cause for alarm, the federal agency says.
if this is the case why is coffee kosher? Bitul? what if there was a full bug?
disclaimer: reading this article didnt stop me from drinking coffee today
Jews have been drinking coffee as long as coffee has been around.
Buy coffee with a hechsher.
Bitul?
yes
what if there was a full bug?
Then it wouldn’t be kosher. You probably can get a full refund for the coffee you got with a full roach in it
An excellent argument for why coffee, like all manufactured (processed) products, require a hecksher.
The alternative is to buy the raw ingredients in their natural form, check them for bugs, and process them yourself (what everyone used to do, and some people still do, but buying in a store is a lot easier).
The 10% infestation rate cited in the article does not mean that 10% of the beans are actually insects or filth – it means that 10% of the beans show signs of insect infestation or filth. The actual percentage that consists of insects is much lower, and is batul. As the beans are then roasted and ground up, the odds of there being an entire insect are tiny – so drink up and enjoy!
an Israeli Yid
Pretty much every processed grown food contains a certain percentage of bug parts (not just coffee, orange juice, sugar, wine..). I don’t know the exact numbers, but the FDA rate of acceptable bugs is very very battul.
Coffee Addict, did we filter coffee Yidden drank 100 or 200 years ago?
- R' Blumenkrantz mentioned these things in his guide for years - Nobody is eating the grounds - There are no whole bugs - A bug is "nosen ta'am lif'gam" - it give a bad flavor and bittul is not even required
All commercially prepared foods, i.e., everything we don’t grow, havest, kill and gut ourselves, has low levels of impurities. Any kashering authority who does not understand this is kidding himself. Any Jew who doesn’t understand this is kidding him/herself, or is ignorant.
As others have correctly noted, if you found a WHOLE cockroach in your pre-ground mocha, you can probably sue and settle for enough to buy your own coffee plantation and find some qualified rebbelah to start your own hashgacha (no roaches allowed). I sometimes wonder if there are yidden with so much time on their hands working from home, that they are constantly searching for these kind of “breaking news” events on Tik Tok which form the basis of a kashruth alert. Headline in the British Tabloids tomorrow will not be about the Royal Family but rather with the mishpacha of the bug who drowned in someone’s grande mocha latte.
huju: Restaurant food has the most impurities. Anyone who hasn’t seen a restaurant kitchen will never again patronize restaurants after the first time he sees behind their closed kitchen doors.
CA: NYC’s tap water system was still fairly new 100 years ago.
To ujm: I have seen restaurant kitchens. Many look filthy. But the fact is, very few people get sick from eating in restaurants. In the US, restaurants don’t make people sick. In fact, the only restaurant that ever made me sick was a kosher one in Israel. But I got over it and, when in Israel, continue to enjoy Israeli restaurants.
“was a kosher one in Israel. ”
As opposed to…? Why is it neccessary to spell that out?
As opposed to…?
Rabbanut
Regarding restaurant impurities,
That’s a lot of hate.
“Did we filter water 100 years ago”
No. The system opened in 1842. Gedolim drank unfiltered water for over 150 years.
Viewing tik tok is probably less kosher than drinking this roach coffee.
Lostspark – 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
IIRC, a while after the heimishe storm erupted about bugs in NYC’s tap water, the DEP admitted that they actually add copepods to their reservoirs for “natural water purification”.
The coffee cock-roach issue is not new. And chocolate is supposedly not different in this regard. Someone I know sneezed almost every time he/she ate chocolate and therefore did an allergy test for cock-roaches. But the result was negative…
And so it’s a good idea to store open bars of chocolate in zip-lock bags. We’re not the only chocoholics around.
Whilst I didn’t exactly watch the TikTak I would say two things:
A) is he referring to ALL brands?
B) In regards to “filtered” water, it used to be a major issue, that’s why many “rebbishe, wear these shirts with huge cuffs, to filter the water. See sefer Aruch Shulchan (YD)..
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