Ground Fresh Coffee or Harmful Fine Coffee Basics

More and more specialty shops are opening up to attract fresh coffee, but the rich and attractive aroma hides high concentrations of caffeine. Hong Kong Ming Pao tests show that a cup of ordinary medium cup of instant coffee on the market has 150 to 200 mg of caffeine, of which Starbucks has the highest caffeine concentration. Office workers have 3 cups of morning, afternoon and evening refreshments, which has exceeded the recommended maximum intake of 300 mg for adults.

Doctors warn that excessive caffeine intake can lead to "coffee syndrome" at any time, causing stress, irritability, anxiety, hand tremors and insomnia.

Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News reported that the newspaper sampled five chain coffee shops in the market at the end of last month, including Starbucks, Pacific Coffee, PretA Manger, McCafe of McDonald's and fresh coffee of Delifrance.

The results showed that Starbucks, which often emitted strong coffee aroma from subway stations, had the highest caffeine content, with about 197 mg in a 260 ml medium cup, followed by McCafe with 164 mg in a 280 ml medium cup, and Pacific Coffee with 153 mg in a 290 ml medium cup.

As for White Americano, which is traditionally considered weak, it has a lower caffeine content in the variety sold by Pret A Manger, with a medium cup of 310 ml containing only 108 mg of caffeine.

It is reported that Taiwan in August this year launched instant coffee "traffic light" mark, coffee shops to indicate the caffeine content of each coffee on the menu, the content of 100 mg or less for green light, 100 to 200 mg yellow light, more than 200 mg for red light, it is best not to drink more than one cup a day. however, major coffee shops in hong kong do not disclose the caffeine content of their coffee drinks, making it difficult for the public to make healthy consumption choices.

As to whether Hong Kong will make reference to Taiwan's experience and encourage traders to implement a system similar to "traffic lights", FEHD said that "this is not a food safety concern, but it is also a good thing for consumers to provide more information on food composition, and the Department welcomes it". The Consumer Council agrees that this is beneficial to consumer rights.

according to the european union food science committee, caffeine affects the central nervous system, kidneys and cardio-pulmonary circulatory system. registered dietitian li jingxun, centre for nutrition research, school of public health, the Chinese university of hong kong, and director of the hong kong poison advisory centre liu fei long both pointed out that comprehensive medical literature suggested that caffeine intake for adults should not exceed 300 to 400 mg.

Liu Feilong said that long-term intake of excessive caffeine, or unconsciously chronic caffeine poisoning, that is,"caffeine syndrome", symptoms include mental tension, anxiety, hand tremors, muscle tension, insomnia, palpitations, etc., the cause of the disease is the central nervous system by caffeine effect too alert. He agrees with coffee shops publicizing caffeine content in drinks.