{"id":70512,"date":"2024-06-11T15:21:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/labour-plans-to-ban-under-16s-buying-high-caffeine-energy-drinks\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T15:21:06","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:21:06","slug":"labour-plans-to-ban-under-16s-buying-high-caffeine-energy-drinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/labour-plans-to-ban-under-16s-buying-high-caffeine-energy-drinks\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour plans to ban under-16s buying high-caffeine energy drinks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Labour<\/div>


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Under-16s will be banned from buying high-caffeine energy drinks in England, if Labour wins 4 July’s general election.<\/p>\n

Drinks such as Monster, Prime and Red Bull would be blocked from sale, to protect children’s health – but Coca-Cola and Lucozade would not be covered by the ban.<\/p>\n

The proposal was welcomed by TV chef Jamie Oliver, who said on X, formerly known as Twitter:<\/a> “You would be amazed if you saw how many kids have breakfast in the form of an energy drink.”<\/p>\n

Children were “bouncing off the walls” in the classroom, so teachers had to resort to “plan-B or plan-C” lessons, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Conservatives had planned to ban under-16s from buying energy – but the move was scrapped over concerns about “nanny state”<\/a> meddling in personal choices.<\/p>\n

Most UK supermarkets have introduced a voluntary ban on the sale of energy drinks to under-16s.<\/p>\n

In January, a review of the health impact of energy drinks on children highlighted links to more risks than previously thought<\/a>, such as anxiety, stress and suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n

The packaging on the drinks often says they are not suitable for children, and yet they can be easily bought by under-18s from corner shops, the researchers found.<\/p>\n

It is a huge and growing market, and up to a third of UK children drink them every week.<\/a><\/p>\n

Under Labour’s plans, drinks containing more than 150mg (0.03 teaspoons) of caffeine per litre (a pint and three-quarters) would be banned from sale, in retail outlets and online, to under-16s.<\/p>\n

Drinks such as Coca-Cola and bottled Lucozade fall under the limit, Labour says. <\/p>\n

But a 500ml can of Monster Energy contains 160mg – equivalent to more than three shots of espresso or five cans of Coca-Cola. <\/p>\n

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting warned children were attending school “wired on the equivalent of three shots of espresso, from these toxic drinks”.<\/p>\n

“It stops them sleeping, damages their mental health.<\/p>\n

“How on Earth do we expect children to learn with that in their system?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Shops would have to check ID if they thought buyers could be under age, as they currently do with alcohol and tobacco. <\/p>\n

Trading-standards officers would police the ban and retailers face fines of up to \u00a32,500. <\/p>\n

Asked why Labour would not include other high-caffeine drinks such as some coffees, leader Keir Starmer said: “Because this is aimed at children and the sort of drinks that at the moment, the energy drinks, that they are drinking.<\/p>\n

“I mean Monster, I think, is the number one.<\/p>\n

“Just to give you a sense of that – the caffeine in that is the equivalent of several espressos, which is why it’s having such an effect on children’s behaviour. <\/p>\n

“Talk to anyone who’s in a school and they’ll tell you what the problem is.”<\/p>\n

The Lib Dems says they would extend the “sugar tax” on soft drinks to juice-based and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar.<\/p>\n

In Scotland, meal deals are to be stripped of crisps and fizzy drinks under SNP plans to tackle an obesity crisis.<\/p>\n

Reacting to Labour’s announcement, Gavin Partington, director general of the British Soft Drinks Association, said: \u201cIn line with and in the spirit of our own long-standing Code of Practice, BSDA members do not market or promote the sale of energy drinks to under 16s and label all high-caffeine beverages as \u2018not recommended for children\u2019, so we welcomed the move by retailers to voluntarily restrict sales to under 16s.”<\/p>\n

He urged any move to ban sales of energy drinks to be “evidence based”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Under-16s will be banned from buying high-caffeine energy drinks in England, if Labour wins 4 July’s general election. Drinks such as Monster, Prime and Red Bull would be blocked from sale, to protect children’s health – but Coca-Cola and Lucozade would not be covered by the ban. The proposal was welcomed by TV chef Jamie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/9f98\/live\/f137d3a0-27e0-11ef-9588-6d96e597ad15.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[230,10254,22968,2988,65492,843,1925,50686],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70514,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70512\/revisions\/70514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}