The row over the legal line between liquid dietary supplements, conventional beverages and energy drinks hit the headlines again this week with Senator Dick Durbin calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce its own guidance.
Over one and a half million cans of Red Bull have been stripped from western Indian shelves by a state level food regulator due to the caffeine content of products, according to our sister site FoodNavigator-Asia.com.
Europe’s coffee makers and energy drink manufacturers are perplexed as to why the EFSA-approved caffeine claims have been dropped from the draft positive list of general function claims.
The thinking behind ingredient selection and dosage in some cognitive health beverages is often “pretty confused”, according to the neuropsychologist behind brain-friendly functional beverage Nawgan.
German scientists say they have found synthetic caffeine in four beverages on sale that claimed to use wholly natural sources, but say that they developed a simpler test for determining caffeine’s origins that could curtail a ‘high risk’ of fraudulous...
Low coffee demands, surplus cocoa stocks, rising sugar prices and a geographical shift in the wheat market, are just a few points raised by Euromonitor’s senior food analyst in its monthly GlobalCast.
There is an overriding trend within the world soft drinks market towards an overlap between categories, while economic unrest is expected to consolidate a trend towards cheaper products, according to Leatherhead Food Research.
Increasing use of innovative ingredients within soft drinks is one of the most notable trends witnessed by that industry over the past few years, according to Leatherhead Food Research.
The addition of caffeine to carbohydrate could help to boost athletes’ performance of skilled tasks in addition to boosting endurance, according to UK researchers.
The UK Food Standards Agency’s (FSA’s) official figures for recommended coffee intake during pregnancy ‘bear very little relation to reality’, according to the author of a new UK research study.
Beverage brand owners would be sensible to diversify within energy drinks now or risk missing out on future market share in a sector increasingly crowded with concepts, according to German ingredients firm Doehler.
UK consumers slashed spending on fruit juice and health drinks during the recession, but sales are booming again despite growing health concerns, according to research firm Key Note.
Tough new regulations concerning classifying energy drinks as 'stimulant drug containing drinks' in Canada are not in the interest of consumers, according to the Canadian Beverage Association (CBA).
Sales of energy drinks are booming, but a new report from Rexam also highlights growing concerns about high caffeine soft drink use amongst young people, especially in the developing world.
While it might not be able to sustain its early “meteoric” growth rates, the energy shots market still has significant growth potential and can potentially target a far wider audience than energy drinks, market researchers have predicted.
Teenagers develop more of a liking for unfamiliar fizzy drinks over time when they include significant doses of caffeine, according to research presented at this week’s meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) in Florida.
Energy drinks are “never appropriate” for children or adolescents and some contain substances that could be harmful, warns a new clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
US researchers have singled out children and teenagers with heart abnormalities, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or other health or emotional problems as being susceptible to adverse events when consuming energy drinks.
Datamonitor has picked out three product launches that illustrate how manufacturers are upping the emphasis on pure and original ingredients to drive healthy soft drink sales.
The main source of antioxidants in coffee is not the uncooked green beans, but can be traced to “valuable compounds” in the roasting process, according to a new study.
Scientists and health professions should not wait for FDA action and should be educating consumers of the dangers of consuming energy drinks, says a new commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly receptive to international soft drink brands but success does depend on an appreciation of local flavour preferences, according to Datamonitor.
Döhler has developed new juice concepts for different times of day in an effort to break the stagnation in the market and make juice more than just a thirst quencher.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US has launched a crackdown on caffeinated alcoholic drinks following a scientific review of their safety.
Hansen Natural, the maker of Monster Energy, is embarking on a major expansion plan in Europe as back home in the US, manufacturers of alcoholic energy drinks protest against a Michigan state ban.
Researchers testing the theory that caffeine consumption is related to an increased risk of certain cardiovascular events have indicated that their findings actually reveal a potential benefit rather than a risk.
Despite a massive increase in recent years, new research from Mintel suggests that energy drinks and shots may be struggling to find new customers in the US .
An editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) has called for more regulation and initiative from industry to protect children from the potential health threat posed by energy drinks.
The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) is advising parents that energy drinks and energy shots are not suitable for consumption by children and young teenagers due to caffeine levels.
There is little that can be done from a technological point of view to reduce the high levels of acrylamide in coffee and coffee substitutes, according to a leading scientist at the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM).
The British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA) has published a code of practice on energy drinks requiring additional labelling to protect children and other people sensitive to caffeine.
A Danish study has found a link between high consumption of cola drinks and reduced semen quality but the research suggests caffeine may not be to blame.
Health Canada has given beverage makers more freedom to add caffeine to their products after extending the authorised use of the stimulant to all carbonated drinks.
Energy shot drinks have come under fire from German authorities which are employing an old-school prohibition logic that history has repeatedly dunce-hatted.
A Yerba Maté beverage is set to be one of the first products on French shelves sweetened with stevia-derived rebaudioside-A (Reb-A), recalling a traditional use of the plant by Guarani Indians in Paraguay.
German health authorities have issued a 14-page statement warning against over-consumption of energy shots – one of the fastest growing segments of the international beverages market.
Global energy drinks leader, Red Bull, says the recent rejection of taurine-based energy health claims by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) won’t have any bearing on its own claim-making.
Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), is considering a ban on high caffeine energy drinks in the Red Bull-led sector, after its Primary Industries minister, Ian McDonald, highlighted products loaded with up to 15 times recommended caffeine...
Manufacturers of energy drinks are less frequently including the ingredient taurine in their new product launches, according to the latest post-market statistics.