Coffee
Clean Label Project Coffee Study (~57 SKUs, 7,069 data points) tested heavy metals via ICP-MS, plus mycotoxins, pesticides, phthalates, glyphosate / AMPA, and acrylamide. Just as importantly, CLP also says coffee’s environmental-toxin burden is generally low versus many other food categories and that all sampled coffees were under EU heavy-metal limits per serving. So the Clean 16 here are best read as the lowest composite contaminant burden within the tested set — not proof that ordinary coffee is broadly unsafe. Best-tier tie-breakers remain current sourcing transparency plus exact-product image verification, and the caution tier stays intentionally softer than a lab-proven “dirtiest coffee” claim because CLP publicly discloses the clean set more clearly than the exact bottom order.
Clean 16 coffees prioritized for transparent sourcing, organic / Fairtrade or clearly sourced bagged formats, and exact live product-image verification.
Caution tier emphasizes CLP-tested everyday products outside the Clean 16 while treating packaging as a risk pattern, not an automatic fail; all three caution products now have exact CLP-tested names and verified official product images.
DO BUYTop 3 — Clean 16
3 verified picks · ranked by purity (metals + contaminants)
Counter Culture Forty-Six
Organic dark-roast specialty blend in CLP’s Clean 16, with unusually strong public sourcing transparency and an exact live product-page image.
Dark roast · bag · organic · CLP Clean 16
Groundwork Ethiopia Heirloom Blend Organic Coffee
Light-roast organic Ethiopia coffee in CLP’s Clean 16, with a current exact product page and an origin story that fits CLP’s lower-average African-metals pattern.
Light roast · bag · organic · Ethiopia · CLP Clean 16
Peace Coffee Birchwood Breakfast Blend
Organic, Fair Trade medium-roast bagged coffee in CLP’s Clean 16, with a stronger farmer-transparency story than the prior flavored-coffee slot.
Medium roast · bag · organic · Fair Trade · CLP Clean 16
DO NOT BUY3 caution picks
3 flagged products · independent lab citations on each detail page
Folgers Classic Roast Coffee
CLP-tested canister coffee outside the Clean 16, with exact current packaging verified from Folgers’ live product page.
CLP-tested · medium roast · canister · not in Clean 16
Chock full o’Nuts Heavenly Original - Medium - Ground
Another CLP-tested everyday coffee outside the Clean 16, with the current brand page still leaning on steel-can packaging.
CLP-tested · medium roast · steel-can format · not in Clean 16
Purity Coffee PROTECT Light-Medium Roast Single-Serve Pods
CLP-tested health-positioned coffee pod outside the Clean 16, with exact current pod image verified from Purity’s live product page.
CLP-tested · light-medium roast · pod · not in Clean 16
Homepage podium summary uses 3 best + 3 worst rows from the same dataset. Tap any row above for the full per-product writeup, citations and verdict.