Coffee is tested by sending a sample to an accredited laboratory that screens for mycotoxins and heavy metals using defined methods. Reading the report means checking five things: who tested, what sample, when, which methods, and each result against a stated limit.
Most coffee is sold on adjectives. This article is about the document underneath the adjectives — the lab report — and how to read one without taking anyone's word for it. If you can read a report, you never have to trust a slogan again.
What are mycotoxins and why test coffee for them?
Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by certain molds as they grow. They are metabolites — byproducts of fungal metabolism — and they turn up across agricultural products, not just coffee: grains, nuts, dried fruit, spices. In coffee the two most commonly monitored are ochratoxin A and the aflatoxins. They can form when green coffee is dried or stored under humid conditions, which is why they are watched from farm to warehouse.
Testing for them is simply measurement. A laboratory takes a defined amount of coffee, extracts it, and runs it on instruments calibrated against known reference standards. The output is a number, or a statement that no signal appeared. Testing does not make coffee safe; it tells you what is present, in what amount, at the moment the sample was drawn. That distinction matters for everything below.
Should coffee be tested green or roasted?
Coffee can be tested as green (raw) beans or as finished roasted coffee, and the choice changes what the report describes. Green testing tells you about the raw material a roaster bought. Roasted testing tells you about the product a person actually brews and drinks.
Roasting is not neutral: it is a high-heat process that alters the bean's chemistry and can affect the levels of some compounds. A green-coffee result is a useful checkpoint for sourcing, but it is a measurement of something that no longer exists in the cup. FEENKA tests finished roasted coffee for exactly this reason — the roasted product is what leaves the building and what you consume, so that is what the report of record describes.
What does a heavy-metals panel measure, and what can I compare it to?
A heavy-metals panel for coffee typically reports four elements: arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb). These occur naturally in soil and water and are taken up by plants; the question is never whether they exist but at what level. The instrument measures a concentration, usually in parts per million (ppm) or the equivalent milligrams per kilogram.
A number alone means little without a framework to read it against, and there are several — which is why comparing coffee to a single "standard" is misleading. Three worth knowing, because a reader can check them directly:
- EU Regulation 2023/915 sets maximum levels for certain contaminants in food across the European Union.
- The FDA Elemental Analysis Manual defines the U.S. methods for measuring elements in food; the FDA also publishes action levels for specific contaminants.
- California Proposition 65 (administered by OEHHA) is a right-to-know warning framework with its own exposure levels — structurally different from a maximum limit.
These frameworks use different units, assumptions, and legal purposes, so a result can sit comfortably under one and be described differently under another. A good report gives you a number; a good reader brings the framework.
What does "Not Detected" actually mean — and how is it different from "below the limit"?
This is the single most misread line on any lab report, so read it slowly. "Not Detected" and "below 0.010 ppm" are not the same statement, and merging them into one is a mistake.
Not Detected (ND) means the instrument found no signal at or above its limit of detection — the lowest point at which the method can reliably tell a real signal apart from background noise. ND does not mean "zero." It means: nothing showed up at the level the method can see.
Below the limit of quantification (for example, "<0.010 ppm") is a different claim. It means a value may be present, but it falls below the range in which the method can put a trustworthy number on it. The lab can say it is under that threshold; it cannot responsibly report how far under.
So ND is a statement about visibility, and "<0.010 ppm" is a statement about quantifiability. An honest report keeps them separate. Anyone who collapses both into "none" or "zero" is rounding away the exact information the report exists to give you.
What makes a laboratory independent?
Independence is not a badge a lab prints itself. It is a chain, and each link is checkable:
- An accreditation body accredits the laboratory — for FEENKA's report, that body is PJLA (Perry Johnson Laboratory Accreditation).
- The standard it accredits against is ISO/IEC 17025, the international standard for the competence of testing laboratories — meaning the lab has demonstrated it can perform its methods reliably.
- The ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (ILAC-MRA) makes that accreditation internationally recognized, so a result is not confined to one country's say-so.
Independence matters because a self-run test has no external check on its competence. A note on language: a laboratory tests, and results are published. A lab does not "verify," "approve," or "pass" a coffee — and coffee does not "pass" a lab report. Those words imply a judgment the lab never makes. The lab measures; you read.
How do I read any coffee lab report?
Five questions, in order, work on any report you are ever handed:
- Who tested? A named, accredited laboratory — not "third-party tested" with no name.
- What sample? Green or roasted, and traceable to a specific product and date.
- When? A report describes the sample drawn on a date, not the coffee forever.
- Which methods? Named analytical methods for each category, so the measurement is reproducible.
- What are the per-category results, and against what limits? Each result stated next to the threshold it is measured against.
If any of the five is missing, the document is a marketing asset, not a report. Note too that "clean coffee" is an unregulated marketing term with no legal definition — it describes nothing measurable. What a report shows is specific numbers against specific limits; that is the only thing testing actually demonstrates.
Where does FEENKA's own report live?
FEENKA publishes its results as the worked example of everything above. The finding, stated exactly: All mycotoxins: Not Detected. Heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead): below the 0.010 ppm limit of quantification. Yeast and mold: <10 CFU/g (tested by external provider). And its scope, which you should always read beside a result: a FoodChain ID Analysis Report, FEENKA reference LAB-2025-0627, on finished roasted coffee from FEENKA's production line, sampled June 27, 2025.
The methods behind those lines: heavy metals by FDA EAM Version 4.7; yeast and mold by AOAC 997.02, performed by an external provider. The laboratory is FoodChain ID Testing, Inc. — PJLA-accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 and ILAC-MRA recognized. Read it yourself: FEENKA's Lab Results — the report of record.
Questions, answered
Does "Not Detected" mean the coffee has zero mycotoxins? No. Not Detected means no signal appeared at or above the method's limit of detection. It is a statement about what the method can see, not a claim of absolute zero.
Is roasted or green coffee testing more relevant to me? Roasted, if you want to know about what you brew. Green testing describes the raw material; finished roasted coffee is the product people actually drink, so that is what the cup-relevant report measures.
What does "below 0.010 ppm" mean on a heavy-metals result? It means any amount present falls below the limit of quantification — the point under which the method cannot assign a reliable number. It is different from Not Detected.
What makes a lab result trustworthy? A named laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, with that accreditation internationally recognized through the ILAC-MRA, reporting stated methods and results against stated limits.
Cite this page
FEENKA. (2026). How is coffee tested for mycotoxins and heavy metals — and how do you read the report?. https://feenka.co/blogs/knowledge/how-coffee-lab-testing-works
Reviewed by FEENKA · July 10, 2026