Caffeine Content of Decaffeinated Coffee

Abstract

Caffeine is the most widely consumed drug in the world with coffee representing a major source of intake. Despite widespread availability, various medical conditions necessitate caffeine-restricted diets. Patients on certain prescription medications are advised to discontinue caffeine intake. Such admonition has implications for certain psychiatric patients because of pharmacokinetic interactions between caffeine and certain anti-anxiety drugs. In an effort to abstain from caffeine, patients may substitute decaffeinated for caffeinated coffee. However, decaffeinated beverages are known to contain caffeine in varying amounts. The present study determined the caffeine content in a variety of decaffeinated coffee drinks. In phase 1 of the study, 10 decaffeinated samples were collected from different coffee establishments. In phase 2 of the study, Starbucks espresso decaffeinated (N=6) and Starbucks brewed decaffeinated coffee (N=6) samples were collected from the same outlet to evaluate variability of caffeine content of the same drink. The 10 decaffeinated coffee samples from different outlets contained caffeine in the range of 0-13.9 mg/16-oz serving. The caffeine content for the Starbucks espresso and the Starbucks brewed samples collected from the same outlet were 3.0-15.8 mg/shot and 12.0-13.4 mg/16-oz serving, respectively. Patients vulnerable to caffeine effects should be advised that caffeine may be present in coffees purported to be decaffeinated. Further research is warranted on the potential deleterious effects of consumption of "decaffeinated" coffee that contains caffeine on caffeine-restricted patients. Additionally, further exploration is merited for the possible physical dependence potential of low doses of caffeine such as those concentrations found in decaffeinated coffee.

Caffeine content of conventional and non conventional foods on the Hungarian market

“…Caffeine content data of different food items investigated in the present study are comparable to those published by other authors (SHIVELY & TARKA, 1984;CAMARGO et al, 1999, CAUDLE et al, 2001MCCUSKER et al, 2003MCCUSKER et al, , 2006a2006b;PENA et al, 2005;CHOU & BELL, 2007;OLMOS et al, 2009;HECKMAN et al, 2010). These data show that there are some special caffeine sources like cakes, biscuits or cottage cheese based desserts containing cocoa or chocolate, but it is supposed that these foods do not contribute at a high level in the intake of caffeine.…”

Comparison of capillary electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography methods for caffeine determination in decaffeinated coffee

“…The buffer solution consisted of 10 mmol.L -1 sodium carbonate and 50 mmol.L -1 1980;FOOD…, 2007). Healthcare professionals recommend a caffeine-free diet to pregnant women and patients with various medical conditions such as hypertension and arrhythmia (McCUSKER et al, 2006). For many consumers, the use of decaffeinated coffee is the solution to avoid the supposed adverse effects of caffeine intake (COULTATE, 2004), which justifies the high consumption of decaffeinated coffee, which corresponds to 10% of the global coffee consumption (SILVAROLLA; MAZZAFERA; FAZUOLI, 2004).…”

Correlation between caffeine contents of green coffee beans and altitudes of the coffee plants grown in southwest Ethiopia

“…Therefore, choosing the right analytical method is essential for the accurate determination of caffeine in test samples. There have been numerous reports on the determination of caffeine in coffee samples following different analytical methods: gas chromatography [15,17,18], electrochemical methods such as voltammetry [19], and spectroscopic techniques including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy [20], near infrared [21], high performance liquid chromatography [5,8,22,23], UV-Vis spectroscopy [4,7,24,25] and fluorescence spectroscopy [26]. However, there are only limited reports available on the comparative study of caffeine determination by different analytical methods for a given set of samples [5,23].…”