Quoted, Dose of truth: California, coffee and cancer, Global Coffee Report

Malcolm Weiss comments on Proposition 65, a California law that enforces warnings of exposure to chemicals known to cause cancer and its impact on the global coffee industry. Speaking to the history of the proposition, Malcolm tells the Global Coffee Report, “In the beginning, there was a real benefit to putting the warnings on certain products, but I’ve been through enough of these [types of cases] that the value of the warnings has greatly diminished.” He notes that though Prop 65 only applies to sales inside of California, national and international roasters are now faced with the decision as to whether to comply with the regulation. “In the majority of instances, companies are unable to differentiate what products are going to California and what products are going elsewhere… So this is effectively California rightly or wrongly affecting commerce throughout the US,” Malcolm says.