Four coffees max a day, warns EU

More than 400mg of caffeine daily harmful and youth energy drink consumption worrying, says report

Drinking the caffeine equivalent of more than four espressos a day is harmful to health, especially for minors and pregnant women, the European Union food safety agency has said.

‘‘It is the first time that the risks from caffeine from all dietary sources have been assessed at EU level,’’ the EFSA said, recommending that an adult’s daily caffeine intake remain below 400mg a day.

Deciding a recommended limit was a request of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, to try to find a Europe-wide benchmark for caffeine consumption.

But regulators said the most worrying aspect was not the espressos and lattes consumed on cafe terraces across Europe, but Red Bull-style energy drinks, hugely popular with the young.

‘‘The main message of the report is that consumers must account for caffeine consumption from sources other than coffee,’’ an EU spokesman said.

In the report, the EU sets at 400mg a day the threshold between a healthy intake of caffeine and a potentially harmful one.

‘‘Caffeine intakes from all sources up to 400mg per day consumed throughout the day do not give rise to safety concerns for healthy adults in the general population, except pregnant women,’’ the agency said in its 120-page report.

Expectant mothers should not exceed half that amount, the agency added, while under-18s should consume no more than three milligrammes per kilo of body mass.

‘‘An adolescent who drinks a coffee, a coke, and two or three Red Bulls every day would easily exceed this limit,” said the agency spokesman.

In seven of the 13 EU countries studied, Denmark came out on top for caffeine consumption with 33 per cent of consumers exceeding the 400mg limit. The Netherlands fol- lowed at 17.6 per cent and Germany at 14.6 per cent.

The French, despite the Gallic coffee culture, came at a surprisingly low 5.8 per cent.

About one third of the adult respondents were regular consumers of energy drinks with 12 per cent of those guzzling them down four or five days a week.

But alarmingly for regulators, a whopping 68 per cent of 10- to 18-year-olds were regular users of energy drinks with 12 per cent heavy consumers. Caffeine levels in energy drinks can vary greatly, the agency said, between about 70mg a litre to 400mg.