Posts Tagged ‘ caffeine ’

What’s in Your Kid’s Favorite Drink? (Big Brother wants to know…)

November 16th, 2009. By LucyC

Caffeine + Alcohol drinks now under FDA's watchful eye College kids, caffeine and alcohol. How many red flags does that sentence raise for you? Well, it’s raised a few at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), specifically, is adding caffeine to alcoholic beverages legal, and is it safe from a health perspective? Short answer: the Agency isn’t sure…or at least that’s how it appears.

So, last week the FDA issued a press release alerting the public about its latest course of action on this issue—which by the way is not new. The Wall Street Journal wrote a piece on this in August, stating “Last year, [2008] about a dozen attorneys general secured settlements with beer giants Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and MillerCoors LLC, which agreed to remove caffeine, guarana and other stimulants from drinks such as Sparks.”

But that’s another story. I digress. The FDA press release informed the public that it has issued letters to 30 manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages—basically putting them on advisement that the whole issue is under investigation. The crux of the matter is:

“Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, a substance added intentionally to food (such as caffeine in alcoholic beverages) is deemed “unsafe” and is unlawful unless its particular use has been approved by FDA regulation, the substance is subject to a prior sanction, or the

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Tags: alcohol, alcoholic beverages, caffeine, FDA
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