(Long Island, NY) Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory and 18th District Legislator William “Doc” Spencer, M.D. today commended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for issuing letters to five distributors of powdered caffeine, warning them of the dangers of their products.
In January, Suffolk County implemented legislation sponsored by Gregory and co-sponsored by Spencer that banned the sale of powdered caffeine to minors, making Suffolk County the first municipality in the nation to do so. In December 2014, Gregory and Spencer traveled to Washington, D.C. to encourage the FDA to ban the sale of the product to minors nationally. They were joined by U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, as well as by the parents of Logan Stiner and James Wade Sweatt, two young men who died from powdered caffeine overdoses last year.
The letters issued by the FDA advised the companies that their products were unsafe if used as their labeling suggested. For example, in its letter to Hard Eight Nutrition, the FDA noted that the company included a conversion chart for doses up to 1/4th a teaspoon, even though the recommended dose was only 1/16th of a teaspoon. Additionally, the FDA also expressed concern that the doses recommended by the companies were so small that they could not be accurately measured with common household measuring tools.
The companies have been given 15 days to formulate responses to the FDA that outline the specific corrective measures they will take to ensure the safety of their products, though the agency stopped short of banning the substance.
“The FDA’s warning to these distributors is an important step toward protecting consumers, especially young people, from the dangers of powdered caffeine,” said Presiding Officer Gregory. “A single tablespoon of powdered caffeine is equivalent to approximately 28 cups of coffee, and, at minimum, the labels on these products should accurately reflect the power of such a concentration.”
“The work of our delegation bears fruit with this recent action taken by the FDA,” said Legislator Spencer. “Today I am thinking about Logan and Wade. May their families and loved ones find comfort in this well-deserved and necessary result. This action is a step in the right direction to ensure that no other family will have to suffer such a senseless loss.”
To read the FDA’s letters to the companies in their entirety, visit the FDA’s website.
