Below is the link to a news report and letter from Senator Durbin to Commissioner Hamburg.  The topic is the regulation of energy drinks.  This letter was triggered by the death of a 14-year-old girl who allegedly drank two 24-ounce energy drinks and then suffered cardiac arrhythmia.  Senator Durbin is asking FDA to assert its authority to regulate caffeine-containing beverages and to address safety concerns posed by “additives” in energy drinks labeled as foods or dietary supplements.

In this specific case, additives include guarana, taurine, ginseng and a host of other ingredients found in energy drinks which are often labeled as conventional foods or dietary supplements.

This subject raises a number of very important issues:

1. The conventional food / Dietary supplement distinction.  What are the distinctions?
2. The regulatory status of ingredients in such products.  Are they dietary ingredients (old or new?), food additives (approved or unapproved?), GRAS affirmed for their intended use?
3. FDA’s regulatory posture toward stimulants, beginning with caffeine and including many other xanthine alkaloid-containing botanical ingredients.

I can’t say that I am surprised by 1) the deadly adverse reaction to their caffeinated products and 2) by the Senator’s letter. It is time to look into this issue of products loaded with caffeine. Hopefully there will be no other death at the meantime.

http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=035e7993-a1e2-4e2c-b1a1-b4f5348eb0cb