Ensuring the Integrity of Purity Coffee
When someone has a complaint or concern regarding our products, we take this very seriously. Feedback, constructive criticism, and complaints are all incredibly important to us. They push us to improve.
Our founding principle is, and always has been, to make every decision based on health, without compromise. Every single step in our process is based upon that foundational belief.
Our dedication to health-focused practices starts with our commitment to regenerative farming and achieving the highest organic standards. Our coffee beans are not only USDA certified organic but also Smithsonian Bird-Friendly® certified, the gold standard for shade-grown organic coffee.
Our roasters are USDA certified organic as well, ensuring that every step of our production process maintains the highest level of organic integrity.
Additionally, we adhere to the strictest food safety standards, implementing rigorous testing, quality control, and stringent sanitation protocols throughout our supply chain.
We’ve spent years studying the association between coffee and health, and work with some of the top coffee scientists in the world.
We are tirelessly committed to producing the healthiest coffee possible while providing full transparency in regards to our research, innovation, sourcing, and process.
An article was published this week which showcased testing that was done on reportedly a dozen premium coffees. Out of these 12 coffees, Purity Coffee was highlighted as the only coffee found to have tested positive for pesticide residue or organic fluorine (indicating presence of PFAS). When brought to our attention, we naturally found this very concerning.
After reading through the article, we have issues with the analysis and question the integrity of the study. In the spirit of truthfulness and authenticity, we have made multiple attempts to provide additional clarity and have repeatedly requested to see the COAs associated with the testing.
All of our outreach has been ignored.
All of our comment replies have gone unpublished or been deleted.
Despite agreeing to an NDA, no COAs have been provided to us.
Given we’ve been silenced at every turn, we feel compelled to respond to this matter through our own channel.
To be clear, we are not at all upset that someone has tested our products and are sharing their results. In fact, we welcome and encourage those with the resources to perform such testing to hold us and other coffee brands accountable for our claims. One of our goals at Purity is to educate consumers such that they will start to demand that coffee companies hold themselves to a higher standard.
What’s troubling about the article in question is the distortion of the truth, which is something we cannot abide at Purity. It’s bad enough that there is already a disturbing amount of misinformation and disinformation out there about coffee, but when egregious claims are made about our company or our product, we are most definitely going to respond.
The author posits that Purity Coffee FLOW was the only coffee tested which showed positive for pesticide residue, with a result of 15 ppb for 2-phenylphenol. This particular compound is not commonly used as an agrochemical and it is absolutely not found in our green coffee. It is, however, an unavoidable byproduct of the coffee roasting process; hence, it is found in all roasted coffees.
The author selectively highlighted us as the only brand to test positive for this negative compound when we unequivocally know that it is also present in all coffees - not just those tested for this article. The research study the author linked in their blog post disproves their assertion and provides empirical evidence that not only is 2-phenylphenol unavoidable in roasted coffee, the trace amounts that develop from roasting are negligible. The quantifiable amounts in roasted coffee pose absolutely no risk to human health.
In addition, based on the verified amounts of 2-phenylphenol in roasted coffee, Purity Coffee FLOW’s 15 ppb places us well below the average of 10 ppb to 90 ppb found in the 162 coffee sample size. Which stands to reason, since our process is designed around maximizing the beneficial compounds while minimizing or avoiding the negative compounds found in coffee.
Either the author did not test the other coffees for 2-phenylphenol or they willfully chose to mislead their audience.
In addition to FLOW whole bean, the author claims to have tested our EASE sachets. Ours was the only product they tested in this particular format despite there being a number of coffees available in single serve tea bags. With absolutely no published evidence, the author alleges that our EASE Pocket Purity likely contains PFAS due to the presence of organic fluorine.
Our coffees do not contain organic fluorine.
The material used for the sachets is composed of 100% compostable non-GMO polylactic acid, which is a plant fiber derived from sugarcane. This material is produced to the highest standard for both health and sustainability. It also does not contain organic fluorine.
The author provides no mention of the devices used in the brewing, what sort of water was used, and again…no tangible evidence. This compound could have been introduced into the brewed sample through a variety of ways. And while organic fluorine is a novel indicator for PFAS, it does not validate the presence of PFAS.
This is yet another fear tactic designed to stir controversy, as well as drive traffic and engagement for the author’s “coffee guide”. A good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself reading a “science-backed” research article that is rife with affiliate links and contains no fewer than 35 display ads, pause and question the integrity and motivation behind it.
However, to ensure our customers’ peace of mind, we will be conducting quantitative total fluorine testing of brewed samples of our single-serve sachets and we will share those results publicly. If, for example, we find that the wrapper within which the sachet is packaged contains negative compounds leaching into our Pocket Purity, we will acknowledge that and seek an alternative. We certainly would never intentionally expose our customers to “forever chemicals”.
August 2024 Update: We recently conducted laboratory testing on our Pocket Purity packaging to assess the presence of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). The results from the testing, as evidenced by this certificate of analysis, shows that there were no detectable traces of PFAS in our packaging, ensuring it is free from these substances.
As I stated earlier in this post, a huge part of our mission is to educate consumers on the truth about coffee and to shed light on an industry that should be holding itself to a higher standard as a whole. We strongly believe that coffee is a healthy beverage for the majority of people and we have an unwavering commitment to producing the healthiest version of coffee possible.
Integrity, transparency, and truthfulness are hallmarks of our company ethos. We are here to answer questions, provide clarity, and address any concerns you may have. That said, please do not hesitate to comment below or reach out to our support team for additional clarity around the results shared in the aforementioned blog article or any other concerns you may have.
Kind regards,
Andrew Salisbury
Founder & CEO
I agree, show the COSs or don’t post. Anyone else notice the redundancy of the site? Very long to get to the point, sometimes not even getting to the point! Seems disingenuous to me especially since all coffee beans produce this compound in trace amounts with roasting. I applaud Purity for posting this response, most companies you would hear crickets. Drinking my Flow coffee now!
Thank you for this response and the details on your testing.
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