Stimulate the FDA on caffeine

Did you catch that recent story about how the smell of chocolate chip cookies prompts expensive splurging in women?

It turns out there are more arrows in the quiver. Another apparent consumption magnet is caffeine, and in this case the target is not only women.

The March issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter quotes Johns Hopkins caffeine expert Roland Griffiths as saying that the presence of the substance in a food and beverage “increases the probability that the product will be bought and consumed” and “builds customer loyalty.”

In recent years, caffeine has been added to comestibles with abandon—nowadays it can be found in candy, chips, hot cereal, and even beer—but it wasn't always that way. As the article points out, the Food and Drug Administration used to limit the amount of caffeine that could be added to any edible item to 48 milligrams per eight ounces. But for some reason, when Red Bull—with its 80mg per eight ounces—came to the States in 1997, the FDA didn’t raise the issue. That opened the floodgates to today’s overstimulated food shelves.

All of which is fine except for the fact that, as the story states, unlike other food additives, caffeine is “a pharmacological agent,” a drug that leads to physical dependence among regular users. The American Dietetic Association advises people not to consume more than 300mg of caffeine per day.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which publishes Nutrition Action, petitioned the FDA in 1997 to require labels on foods to which caffeine has been added listing how much of the stimulant is in each serving. In January, the article states, the agency “said that the petition 'is still active and pending and the Agency has not reached any decision yet.’”

If you’d like to encourage the FDA to require labels on jittery foods, write the agency:

FDA Dockets Management (HFA-305)—Docket No. 97P-0329
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852