Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials on Tuesday said that there have been no adverse reactions reported locally from people drinking an imported energy drink from the US that has been linked to five deaths there.
Pan Chih-kuan (潘志寬), director of the FDA’s Northern Center for Regional Administration, said the agency has not received any reports of death or injury linked to consumption of the heavily caffeinated Monster Energy Drink.
Taiwan imported just 96 bottles of the drink last month, he added.
Photo: AFP
Yang Chen-chang (楊振昌), a toxicologist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, advised the public to avoid ingesting more than 300mg of caffeine per day. Each bottle of the energy drink contains 240mg of caffeine.
Foreign wire services reported on the same day that the US Food and Drug Administration is investigating five deaths and one non-fatal heart attack possibly linked to the energy drink. The agency said that although it is investigating the cases, which date back to 2004, there is not necessarily any direct link to the drink.
The investigation was initiated after a wrongful death suit was filed on Friday in Riverside, California, by the parents of a 14-year-old teenage girl who died within 24 hours of drinking Monster Energy Drink.
A statement released by Monster Beverage Corp, the energy drink’s manufacturer, said that it is “unaware of any fatalities anywhere that have been caused by its drinks,” adding that it intended to vigorously defend itself against the allegations made in the lawsuit.
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