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That’s a historical use. TCE was banned from food and medical uses in the US, including decaf coffee, in 1977.

It's a good question. It's easy to locate Swiss water decaf in the US now, but apparently that wasn't true in the mid-80's, so the answer depends on when and where the caffeine was extracted from the coffee.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/19...

> This is saying this chemical is used to decaffeinate coffee.

Until 50 years ago.

They use supercritical CO2 now.

Only some decaf coffee is made that way, there are actually four major methods now for making decaf, only two of them do not involve chemicals.

Always research the methods of your decaf coffee vendor before you buy!

Technically both water and supercritical CO₂ are chemical solvents...

That’s a bit pedantic in this context. True but that’s not what we’re talking about.

Depends on how the coffee is decaffeinated. Swiss Water Process, for instance, literally just uses water. Most other methods involve organic solvents of some sort.

Zero, it’s highly volatile.