{"id":695547,"date":"2026-07-16T21:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695547\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:52:12","slug":"energy-drinks-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-england-from-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695547\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ban comes after 1,100 responses to a consultation which strongly supported introducing an age restriction on the drinks, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new rules will come in via secondary legislation using powers from the Food Safety Act 1990.<\/p>\n

Too much caffeine can cause a rapid heart rate, abnormal heart rhythms and seizures.<\/p>\n

Although rare, there have been some deaths linked to excess caffeine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sugary versions of the drinks can also contribute to obesity and damage teeth, according to The Association of UK Dieticians.<\/p>\n

Currently any drink, other than tea or coffee, with over 150mg requires a label warning of its high caffeine content that says it is not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women.<\/p>\n

For most adults, up to 400mg of caffeine a day, or about four cups of instant coffee or five cups of tea, is safe.<\/p>\n

Katharine Jenner, Executive Director of the Obesity Health Alliance, praised the policy and said restricting the sales of the drinks to children “at a vital time in their life is just common-sense”.<\/p>\n

The British Soft Drinks Association said the ban was “unnecessary”.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said: “Since 2010, our members have committed not to market or promote the sale of energy drinks to under-16s, and all high-caffeine beverages carry a ‘not recommended for children’ label.”<\/p>\n

The previous Conservative government had planned to introduce the ban, but scrapped the move in 2022, and said consumption should be a personal choice.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are also considering a ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ban comes after 1,100 responses to a consultation which strongly supported introducing an age restriction on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-695547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}