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Decaf Atlas
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Spilling the Beans: how much caffeine is too much

US Food and Drug Administration · 2024 · fda.gov

The FDA's consumer guidance on caffeine. Gives 2–15 mg per 8 fl oz cup of decaf against 113–247 mg for a 12 fl oz regular coffee, and cites 400 mg a day as the level not generally associated with negative effects in healthy adults.

How much weight this carries

Well established. Safe to rely on as stated.

What it says

  • Decaf contains 2–15 mg caffeine per 8 fl oz cup
  • Regular coffee contains 113–247 mg per 12 fl oz
  • 400 mg per day is not generally associated with negative effects — In healthy adults. The guidance is explicit that this is not universal.

What it does not say

  • The 400 mg figure is not a recommendation, a target, or a limit that applies to everyone. The guidance names pregnancy, medication interactions and individual sensitivity as reasons it may not apply.
  • It says nothing about decaffeination processes or solvent residues, which are covered by separate regulation.

Recorded because the errors in this subject all point one way: toward claims more confident and more flattering to decaf than the evidence supports.

Useful as a plain, citable baseline for the caffeine figures. It is consumer guidance rather than a study, so it carries regulatory weight but no primary measurement — for that, see McCusker et al..

Cited on

For measurement, see