Steve Brine told Parliament that the Government would not rule out further action on energy drinks as he responded to a Westminster Hall debate on the subject.
The debate has been called by Anna Turley, the MP for Redcar, and Mr Brine, in his role as Public Health Minister, told the House that they were all in agreement that regular consumption of energy drinks by children is not appropriate.
As well as the health and wellbeing issues of caffeine and sugar, he also said there was anecdotal evidence from schools that consumption has a negative impact on behaviour.
A 250ml can of energy drink usually contains about 80 milligrams of caffeine – this is similar to two to three cans of cola or a mug of instant coffee. Some of the smaller 'energy shot' products can contain double this amount of caffeine, and the British Soft Drinks Association Code of Practice states that high caffeine soft drinks should not be marketed, advertised or promoted to children under the age of 16.
Steve Brine said: "Amidst growing public concern and in line with this voluntary industry code we have recently seen major supermarkets banning the sale of such products to under-16s.
"It is of course important that the Government remains open minded and continues to look at any new evidence that emerges. The Food Standards Agency has remained vigilant to any new robust evidence that may enhance our understanding of the safety of caffeine."
He also discussed the problems of sugar, and told MPs that latest figures continue to show that our childhood obesity rates remain far too high with almost a quarter of children overweight or obese when they start primary school and this rises to around a third by the time they leave. Mean intakes of sugar are currently more than double the recommended amount across all age groups and teenagers are consuming 14.1% of their energy from sugar. Over a fifth of this sugar intake comes from sugar sweetened soft drinks.
He said: "Key measures in our world-leading Childhood Obesity Plan, launched in August 2016, include the soft drinks industry levy and the sugar reduction and wider reformulation programme, which will reduce the amount of sugar we all consume. Energy drinks with added sugar are in the scope of the levy.
"Just under two weeks ago, on the 6th April, the levy came into force. We are already seeing improvements – a number of soft drinks manufacturers have announced that they have, or will, reformulate their products to reduce sugar levels and we are already."
Mr Brine added that these actions cannot entirely eliminate the sale of energy drinks to under-16s, but reassured the House that this is a matter which the Government is looking at very carefully, and they will continue to monitor the situation in the light of the emerging scientific evidence.
He said: "If we conclude that further government action is needed to restrict the sale of energy drinks to children, then we will not hesitate to act."
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