The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that several manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages have stopped producing and shipping the products and expect to remove them from store shelves.
The companies took the steps after the FDA warned four beverage manufacturers on November 17, 2010 that it had not approved adding caffeine to the drinks, and that the caffeine was an “unsafe food additive.”
Several states banned the drinks and a number of colleges have barred them from their campuses after nine college students in Washington state were hospitalized after drinking the beverages at an off-campus party.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was one of 17 state attorneys general to call on the FDA to ban the drinks in 2009.
According to a letter from medical researchers that accompanied that request, the beverages are particularly worrisome because the caffeine may “mask” the effects of alcohol, leading to excessive and binge drinking.
