The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday published a draft amendment to require stores selling freshly made beverages, such as bubble tea, to indicate their caffeine content.
Under the planned revision to regulations governing the labeling of beverages sold at convenience stores and fast-food chains, all freshly made drinks that contain caffeine would be required to label their caffeine content.
Existing regulations stipulate that only coffee drinks are required to do so.
Photo: CNA
The amendment was proposed based on public calls to remind consumers that drinks other than coffee, such as tea and hot chocolate, also contain caffeine, FDA technical specialist Chen Yu-hsuan (陳瑜絢) said.
Based on the draft amendment, beverages made with ingredients that contain caffeine would have to indicate their caffeine content, Chen said.
The labeling can be done by marking the highest caffeine amount in a beverage or by using a proposed three-color system — red, yellow and green — to indicate a drink’s caffeine level.
Red indicates that a beverage contains up to 200mg of caffeine, yellow means that it contains 100mg to 200mg and green indicates that a drink contains less than 100mg, Chen said.
The amendment was proposed after a seven-year-old boy, who is allergic to caffeine, had a seizure after drinking a brown sugar-flavored milk drink from a Milkshop outlet in January.
The chain later released a statement apologizing for failing to inform the customer that the beverage contained black tea.
Under the draft rules, caffeine content information can also be provided through QR codes or other electronic methods.
The draft amendment is open for public review for 60 days, starting yesterday. It is to come into effect on July 1 next year.
Failure to label drinks as required would result in a fine from NT$30,000 to NT$3 million (US$1,075 to US$107,488) based on the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法).
Operators can be fined up to NT$4 million for labels that contain inaccurate information, the FDA said.
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