For many people, a cup of coffee is sacred and Swedes drink the second most coffee in the world, after Finland.
Most people brew their own coffee that requires a coffee filter and Råd & Rön has mapped and tested 15 of our most common coffee filters.
To test the amount of lead in the coffee filters, they were cut down and placed in a water bath where the substances were allowed to leach out.
Then the levels in the liquid were measured.
Råd & Rön then compared with the limit value for drinking water, which is ten micrograms per liter.
In 9 out of 15 coffee filters, levels of lead were then found that exceeded this.
"Coffee filters should contribute as little as possible"
- These are not acute levels, but since we have to reduce the amount of lead we get in us through food, coffee filters should contribute as little as possible, says Salomon Sand, risk assessor at the National Food Administration to the newspaper.
In the test, there was only one coffee filter, from Lidl, for which no detectable levels were found.
Coop Extra had the highest levels.
"Started an investigation"
- We think it is serious with the measured levels in your test that do not comply with the requirements of the standard.
We have started an investigation with the supplier and communicated the lead levels that R&R has measured.
The tests that are regularly performed at the supplier do not correspond to the results from R&R, but show that the levels are within the stated limits ", writes Helena Kilström Esscher, head of press and media relations at Coop, in an email to Råd & Rön.
Axfood's filters also contained high levels of lead.
“The filter paper is tested specifically for migration of lead regularly, and in the latest test, which was carried out this year, the result for migration of lead is well below the limit.
The levels of lead you report are higher than they should be, but they do not correspond with the test results that our subcontractor has seen in completed tests ", writes Magnus Törnblom, test manager at Axfood in an email.