5 days until EU caffeine crunch time
FoodDrinkEurope: What do you mean by acute intake?
Representing FoodDrinkEurope, Sue O’Hagan said more clarity was needed on what exactly was meant by ‘acute intake’, something she said seemed to range from a single dose to a single day in the opinion.
The FDE understood‘acute intakes’ as typically referring to consumption of a single serving or portion or consumption on an eating occasion.
She said EFSA should establish the levels of no concern for children and adolescents for acute and daily (chronic) consumption.
Since the main references for caffeine intakes were the EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database and a 2013 EFSA-commissioned report (Zucconi et al.), she said these figures could have been overestimated or misinterpreted.
On this point FDE said there had been bias toward males in data for children; dietary intake protocols rather than dietary recalls would have been more appropriate and accurate; and that attention had not been drawn to the difference between caffeinated energy drinks and typically non-caffeinated sports drinks.
“In the Zucconi study, participants were asked if they have consumed energy drinks within the last year and, if yes, were then defined as an energy drink consumer. Could EFSA please elaborate if this different approach is considered appropriate for establishing the opinion?”
The opinion would benefit from “an analysis of uncertainty within the risk assessment,” she concluded.