dustin360 wrote:From the little bit of research I did Diacetyl increases with roast degree, which maybe is why its not a wide spread issue in specialty coffee. But the fact that grinding produced 3 times the amount found in roasting, makes me think twice about sticking my face over the grinder shoot and inhaling deeply every time i grind coffee...

I would take reservation with roast degree, as well as nasal reaction as an evolutionary indicator of food safety. Roasting to the 2nd crack releases some very acrid odors as well as notorious smoke -- something I avoid, even in barbeques and among cigarette smokers. On the other hand, city and city-plus roasts are generally somewhat neutral, compared to yellowing stages.

Let's hope risk analyses of dark, medium, and light-roasting facilities can be done. Business costs of retail coffee is expensive enough -- when all we wanted was larger public acceptance while prioritizing profits at the farm level.

Diacetyl smells like butter. when the roast smells like butter, that's diacetyl. I'm smelling it from the crack onwards, and very present in full city roasts. I've stopped taking in huge lungfulls of that wonderful smell each roast end.

More on this from Daily Coffee News:
http://dailycoffeenews.com/2015/08/19/t ... al-health/

If I read this right, roasting robusta is healthier for you!

Another study on this: New studies further show risk of chemicals to coffee roasters

Just saw an episode of Cook's Country (or was it America's Test Kitchen) where they were making baguettes and mentioned diacetyl forming in the dough. With no worry about it. I know that's not exactly analogous to what roasters are exposed to. At least I got to hear how to pronounce it

I guess this is one of those times that having allergies helped me as I am often wearing some kind of respirator, had to buy a fancy cartridge one since my nose is substantial and I'm wearing glasses now (they fog up with the cheap filters).

One thing wearing all this and hearing protection does- it allows me to roast un-interrupted. You're not very approachable when you have on 1/4 of a hazmat suit.

Roasting uninterrupted is appealing to me today. I was roasting in my RK drum out in the driveway. Paying close attention to time, temperature, smells, smoke. Deeply engaged in my craft when my neighbor came up behind me to ask if I'd consider opening a shop downtown. He scared me so much I jumped a foot. When my wife does that to me I yell at her. Hazmat gear sounds like just the thing.

Not sure what cartridge filter you are using but if it is only a particulate filter it probably won't do much...

Think you need to ensure that the filter you're using is capturing organic compounds.

This is what I found on the quick:

PPE. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can include an air-purifying respirator equipes with an organic vapor cartridge in combination with particulate filters (to provide minimum protection). Any supplied air respirator also can be used. Powered air purifying respirators with organic vapor cartridges and particulate filters also will provide minimum protection. The selection of an appropriate respirator depends on the worker's exposure. A complete respiratory protection plan also must be implemented to comply with 29 CFR 1910.134,Respiratory Protection.

Since I read about the organic vapor requirement here I sought out cartridges with that specifically listed. So thank you for pointing that out! I bought a 3M set that does particulate and listed the OV stuff. The other half of wearing the gear is shaving before roasting, which might not go over well with a lot of roasters but the mask doesn't really fit unless you're clean shaven.

Bean2friends- if you're in your driveway you might want to minimize looking like Walter White, it's one thing to be interrupted by a neighbor but a whole other thing to be interrupted by the local constabulary


FWIW- wearing the face mask hasn't been a big deal, mildly uncomfortable after 8 hours or so, can't drink through it. Occasionally I'll bump the cartridges with something because I forget how far they stick out. Upside is you can stick your tongue at people.

Rich

As a follow up, here's a just-published investigative report on diacetyl exposure in mid-sized commercial roasteries (Just Coffee and Valentine Coffee in Wisconsin) from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The results are surprising and worrying for commercial roasters. It appears exposure to diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione from unflavored coffee grinding operations is as problematic as from roasting.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchd ... 83961.html