Coffee's classification as a possible carcinogen has been downgraded by the research arm of the World Health Organization, reported AP. The International Agency for Research on Cancer said in a letter that there is not enough evidence to link the caffeine with cancer.

The letter published on Wednesday in Lancet Oncology, however, classified "very hot" beverages as "probably carcinogenic" and said drinking anything that is at a very high temperature could raise the risk of the life threatening disease. The report mentioned countries such as China, Iran and those in South America, where people drink certain kinds of herbal infusion drinks as hot as 65 or 70 degrees Celsius and above.

"I'm not really sure why coffee was in a higher category in the first place. The best evidence available suggests that coffee does not raise the cancer risk," said Owen Yang, an epidemiologist at Oxford University. He has studied the possible link between coffee and cancer in the past, though he was not part of the group that came up with the latest development.