One of every five cups of coffee consumed worldwide contains detectable pesticide residues, according to a new international report that links intensive chemical use in coffee fields to risks for consumers, farmworkers, and the environment.
The study, titled Poison in Your Coffee: How Widespread Use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides Threatens Farmers, the Environment, and Coffee Consumers, was released on 22 June 2026 in Berlin by the watchdog group Coffee Watch and partner NGOs including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, PAN UK, German environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), and INKOTA-netzwerk. Drawing on laboratory tests and regulatory data, the authors report that 19% of green coffee samples carried pesticide residues before roasting, with residues also found in brewed coffee and roasted beans.
In one dataset cited in the Coffee Watch report PDF, 72% of roasted coffee samples from the United States contained residues of AMPA, a breakdown product of the herbicide glyphosate, while 21% of roasted coffee samples tested in Egypt contained pesticide residues. The report notes that two billion cups of coffee are consumed globally each day, magnifying the potential scale of exposure for drinkers, though it does not convert these residue findings into specific health outcomes.
Residues measured in Europe also include chemicals no longer permitted in the European Union itself. According to a PAN Europe press release summarizing European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) monitoring, 23% of coffee samples tested by EFSA in 2022 contained pesticides that are banned in the EU. Coffee Watch’s full report adds that the presence of banned pesticides in coffee has increased tenfold between 2011 and 2022, while EFSA tested only 44 coffee samples in 2022 compared with 27,000 vegetable samples.
The research groups frame the issue as a double standard between consuming and producing countries. In comments published by DUH, report lead author and INKOTA pesticide expert Dr. Silke Bollmohr said the findings highlight “Doppelmoral in der Kaffeebranche,” describing how pesticides considered too dangerous for use in the EU can still be exported to coffee-growing nations and then return to European supermarkets in imported coffee. In a Coffee Watch press release, she added that “the people who grow our coffee are being routinely exposed to chemicals that would be illegal to use in the countries drinking it,” calling the situation “a human rights issue as much as an environmental one.”
The Coffee Watch report classifies coffee as one of the most pesticide-intensive crops globally, with fields treated with an average of 10 liters of pesticide per hectare, compared with 7.4 liters per hectare for maize and 4.8 liters per hectare for soy. PAN Europe’s analysis finds 159 different pesticide active ingredients registered in coffee across major producers such as Brazil, Kenya, and Colombia, with 60% of those substances categorized as Highly Hazardous Pesticides and 59% banned within the European Union.
The documented impacts extend beyond residue findings in beans and cups. Coffee Watch’s full report states that in Colombia, 81.3% of surface water samples from coffee-growing regions contained pesticide residues. In Brazil, the report cites 19.8 million liters of pesticides applied to coffee in 2015, a volume DUH links in its press release to US$246.5 million in revenue for the agrochemical industry from Brazil’s coffee sector. Vietnam’s agricultural pesticide use is reported to have increased three- to five-fold over roughly 25 years, with coffee ranking second only to rice in total pesticide consumption, according to Coffee Watch.
On farms, the report describes widespread use of pesticides without basic protective gear. Coffee Watch’s data show that in the Dominican Republic, 87% of surveyed farmers reported not wearing masks or gloves while applying pesticides, and in India about two-thirds of coffee farmers used no protective equipment. In an interview cited by French broadcaster RFI, Coffee Watch speaker Alex Higonnet said, “There are traces of pesticide residues in one in five cups of coffee that consumers drink. But the real catastrophe is that workers are being poisoned.”
Biodiversity and pollinators also feature prominently in the joint NGOs’ concerns. In the Coffee Watch press release, PAN UK spokesperson Sheila Willis stated that “the coffee industry is biting the hand that feeds it, which in this case is pollinators,” linking pesticide use in coffee to a “mass extinction crisis” and the loss of “countless vital species.” Coffee Watch’s documentation of multiple insecticidal active ingredients in coffee systems is presented alongside references to toxicity for bees and other beneficial organisms.
For importing economies, the organizations emphasize the contrast between high consumption and distant production risks. Coffee Watch’s report estimates that the European Union, United States, and Japan together account for more than half of global coffee imports, with the EU alone importing around 3 million tonnes of coffee annually. DUH notes that Germany imports an average of 1.1 million tonnes of unroasted green coffee each year, which it links to up to €12.9 billion in profits for coffee companies, while also associating highly hazardous pesticide use in origin countries with “kranke Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter, zerstörte Artenvielfalt und vergiftete Böden” (“sick workers, destroyed biodiversity and poisoned soils”).
The coalition behind Poison in Your Coffee is using these findings to call for policy changes in Europe. In a PAN Europe press release, the group’s Head of Science and Policy, Angeliki Lysimachou, said that “dangerous pesticides are ending up in our cups, even though they have been banned in the EU,” and argued that their use harms farmers, communities, biodiversity and water resources in producing countries while also placing European farmers at a competitive disadvantage. She described the situation as an “unethical and unfair double standard” and urged the EU to act to end exports of pesticides it has already banned at home and to strengthen coffee import residue controls.
