Coffee consumers in the most populous state in the union will soon receive a health jolt with their morning java.

That's because Los Angeles Superior Court judge Elihu Berle has ruled that coffee companies must warn the public about a chemical that's been linked to cancer.

It's called acrylamide and it's produced in the roasting process.

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics took Starbucks and 90 other companies to court, alleging that they were violating California's Prop. 65.

Also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, it was passed in 1986 to ensure Californians could make informed decisions about chemicals that elevated the risk of cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm.

The National Coffee Association isn't pleased by the judge's ruling, claiming that a cancer-warning label "would be misleading".

According to the association, coffee consumption has been linked to greater longevity and other health benefits.

“Coffee has been shown, over and over again, to be a healthy beverage," association president Bill Murray said in a statement. "This lawsuit has made a mockery of Prop 65, has confused consumers, and does nothing to improve public health."

The Health Canada website noted that its scientists "were among the first to demonstrate how acrylamide forms in certain heat-processed foods".

"Most acrylamide in food is formed when a natural amino acid called asparagine reacts with certain naturally occurring sugars such as glucose," Health Canada stated. "This only happens when the temperature during cooking is sufficiently high, a temperature which varies depending on the properties of the product and the method of cooking."

So does acrylamide pose a health risk to humans?

According to Health Canada, it's known to cause cancer in experimental animals, but more research is needed to fully understand the relationship of acrylamide exposure from food sources to human beings.

"Dietary exposure to acrylamide has been identified as a potential concern by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)," the website stated. "However, both Health Canada and JECFA agree that it is currently not possible to determine the precise level of risk for human health."