SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS/AP) -- Thirty manufacturers have been given a month to submit evidence to the Food and Drug Administration that their products contain safe levels of alcohol and caffeine.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera was among attorneys general in 18 states who signed onto a complaint charging the companies added caffeine to their products without FDA approval.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor reports
The complaint alleges that the drinks pose a safety risk since the high levels of caffeine mask the intoxicating effects of the alcohol, essentially making the consumer an alert drunk.
“In fact, the prevalence of the alcohol is as high as 26 percent,” Herrera told KCBS reporter Barbara Taylor.
Caffeinated alcoholic beverages represent a $1 billion a year segment of the beer industry that primarily targets young people.
“Kids are going to be staying up longer and longer, not going to sleep, getting increasingly high while they’re continuing to drink alcohol which obviously is not in their best interests,” Herrera said.
Miller, Coors and Anheuser-Busch have already removed the caffeine from their energy drink products. Smaller companies however continue to market alcohol-caffeine energy drinks.
Among the companies included in the FDA letter issued Friday are Los Angeles-based Joose Beverage, Portland, Ore.-based Charge Beverages, Mix Master Beverage Co. of Stateline, Nev., Blank Beverages Co. of San Diego, Calif., and Phusion Projects LLC of Chicago.
(jro)
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