The FDA announced on Tuesday (Sept. 1) that it had issued warning letters to five companies that sell powdered caffeine, saying that their products pose a “significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury to consumers.” Caffeine is in coffee, tea and other products people consume every day, so why is powdered caffeine dangerous?
“Powdered caffeine is very concentrated,” said Henry Spiller, director of Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Most people are so comfortable with the effects of caffeinated beverages like coffee and soda that they don’t realize that the amount they ingest is just milligrams, Spiller said. Just 1 teaspoon of the caffeine powder contains about the same amount of caffeine as 28 cups of regular coffee, the FDA said. In fact, 2 teaspoons of powdered caffeine would kill most adults, according to the Centers for Science in the Public Interest.
One problem with the powdered products is that consumers usually don’t have the tools to measure a safe dose. The recommended serving size of powdered caffeine is just 50 milligrams to 200 milligrams — or about one-sixteenth of a teaspoon. What’s more, the smallest packages of powdered caffeine sold by some of the companies contain 100 grams of product, which is 2,000 recommended servings.
High doses of caffeine can cause serious side effects, including increased blood pressure, a rapid or dangerously erratic heartbeat, seizures and even death, the FDA said. Two young adults — an 18-year-old in Ohio and a 24-year-old in Georgia — died in 2014 from accidental overdoses of powdered caffeine. Although it’s possible to overdose on caffeine by drinking upward of 50 cups of coffee, most people would probably stop before this point because they would be experiencing nausea or vomiting and a rapid heart rate. The danger with powdered caffeine is that you take this dose of caffeine all at once……
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