Energy drink sales up, despite health concerns
March 18, 2011 2:02PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
Sales of energy drinks and shots are soaring, even as there are growing health concerns given the popularity of the high-caffeine drinks among young people.
The dollar value of energy drink sales rose 13.3 percent last year, thanks in part to a “significant boost” from “energy shot” sales at convenience stores, according to a report from the market research firm SymphonyIRI Group.
American Beverage Association science chief Maureen Storey says energy drinks are no worse than coffee. A 16-ounce cup of Starbucks’ Pike Place coffee, for instance, has 330 mg of caffeine. That size of latte has 160 mg — the same as a 16-ounce can of the energy drink Monster Energy, which bills itself as “a killer energy brew” that “you can really pound down.”The federal Food and Drug Administration limits caffeine in soft drinks to 71 mg for 12 ounces but doesn’t regulate the caffeine in energy drinks, coffee or tea.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers redeived 340 reports from January through March 3 of energy-drink incidents, most of them minor. A recent report in the journal Pediatrics warned about links between caffeine in energy drinks, high blood pressure, increased alcohol consumption and even addiction among young people.
Gannett News Service
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