Today’s Mold Talks Heroes guest is Andrew Salisbury, founder of companies including Purity Coffee, CEO, and awareness advocate. After his wife began experiencing chronic health issues, they eventually discovered that mold exposure was triggering her body to sound the alarm that something wasn’t quite right. During their process of eliminating her exposure and getting her body back on track, Andrew stumbled into the world of coffee.
Initially, he believed that coffee, in general, was something that his wife should avoid to help her better heal after her mold exposure. After being tasked with providing serious proof before she gave up her bean water, he discovered that this caffeinated beverage could be beneficial to health if the brand followed certain protocols for their coffee. “It’s about the presence of good things and the absence of bad things.” One such bad thing that he discovered in unhealthy coffee was mold and mycotoxins.
Through extensive research, Andrew and a team he established developed a signature process to increase the health benefits of coffee and decrease its side effects like caffeine jitters and gastric distress. Now they’re focusing on continuing to provide healthy coffee to individuals around the world and pushing the needle forward on changing the industry as a whole.
In this episode:
0:45: Andrew describes how he became aware of mold and its impact on health. His wife began developing health issues in 2012, and they dove into figuring out what was causing her to feel unwell. One of the issues that came up was her coffee consumption. "She was drinking a lot of coffee to deal with her fatigue, and I’m English, so I’m a tea drinker, so I very seldom drank coffee. I kept trying to convince her to give up coffee because I kept reading how bad it was for you, but she was very resistant about giving up her coffee because she needed to get through her day."
2:50: Andrew details the research he found on how coffee can be both good and bad for you. "It’s about the presence of good things and the absence of bad things."
5:00: Andrew explains his response to all the answers he uncovered about coffee and the importance of ensuring that drinkers get the benefits of this caffeinated beverage without dealing with issues like pesticides and mold. Working with coffee experts, including Dr. Adriana Farah, he developed a protocol on what to look for when deciding which coffee varieties were safe for consumption. From there, Andrew began the long journey of using this information to create a safe brand. "If we were only driven by the health benefits of coffee, what decisions would we make?"
6:50: Andrew lists the issues he went through while trying to find coffee that actually fit the brief of being healthy, including a type of coffee fraud.
8:50: Andrew explains how mold can be introduced into coffee in the first place. There are a few routes, including picking and storing coffee beans. "Imagine this big, multi-ton pile of coffee that’s sprayed with water, then absorbed, so they can sell it for more than they would have if they never sprayed it. Then you’ve got this moist coffee being transported in sacks for months."
12:45: Andrew describes the future steps he’s taking now that he knows everything he knows about what it takes to make a healthy coffee. "We’re trying to create best practices for what we believe is a new segment of coffee and health."
14:30: Andrew details why pesticides are used and the farmers he’s found that work with nature to find alternative measures to protect their crops.
18:45: Andrew explains what future steps the coffee industry at large should be taking, better testing methods that should be employed, and what consumers should be considering when purchasing. "Every consumer should be demanding good, clean coffee."
24:00: Andrew describes the difficulties he and his wife faced while trying to deal with the mold that was causing her exposure and the need for change that he’s seen. "It was a slow process."There’s a group of people who are showing sensitivities to things I think all of us are going to have issues with soon if we don’t resolve some of these poor quality practices that are in the industry."
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