Posts Tagged “FDA”

Just like Philly P, parties with more than two kegs, and Dan Porterfield, another piece of college canon is leaving us for good. After a struggle led by pretty much everybody except college students, the Food and Drug Administration banned Four Loko and other caffeinated alcoholic drinks.

Today, the FDA sent letters to four companies—including Four Loko’s manufacturer, Phusion Products—informing them that the FDA had decided that adding caffeine to alcoholic beverages was unsafe. The companies must take action within fifteen days, or the FDA warns it will seize the products or seek a court order to ban the distribution of the products.

“FDA does not find support for the claim that the addition of caffeine to these alcoholic beverages is ‘generally recognized as safe,’ which is the legal standard,” Joshua M. Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner, said in a statement. “To the contrary, there is evidence that the combinations of caffeine and alcohol in these products pose a public health concern.”

Just last night, Phusion took preemptive action by announcing that they would remove caffeine, taurine, and guanine—three of the four ingredients that give Four Loko its name—from their beverages.

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