Study authors have found insufficient evidence to make it illegal to sell energy drinks to children, yet would welcome voluntary action including exclusion zones.
Despite several supermarkets imposing their own bans on selling energy drinks to under-16s, the Science and Technology Committee’s Energy Drinks and Children Report, published in December last year, concluded that there wasn’t enough “quantitative evidence” to warrant making their sale to children illegal, potentially halting any government plans for legislation.
The report advised that it was currently unclear whether energy drinks were more harmful than other soft drinks. Yet, despite this, it welcomed any voluntary action — including exclusion zones — taken by schools, retailers and local communities that could reduce the consumption of energy drinks by children. It also recognised that despite its main findings, that “it might be legitimate” for the experiences of teachers and other groups (“qualitative evidence”) to lead to a statutory ban.1
As a result, the government faces the decision as to whether it should act now, or wait for further evidence.
According to the report, children in the UK are the largest consumers of energy drinks in Europe. Between 2012 and 2017, the market ballooned by 19 per cent and globally it is predicted by business analysts to increase by 3.7 per cent year-on-year over the next five years. But in spite of this rise, there has been no long-term research into the effects of energy drinks. Although warnings have come from sources such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), so far only one country in the EU, Lithuania, has banned the sale of energy drinks to minors.
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