{"id":86741,"date":"2026-07-16T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/energy-drinks-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-england-from-april\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:57:00","slug":"energy-drinks-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-england-from-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=86741","title":{"rendered":"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

The ban comes after 1,100 responses to a consultation which strongly supported introducing an age restriction on the drinks, external<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The new rules will come in via secondary legislation using powers from the Food Safety Act 1990.<\/p>\n

Too much caffeine can cause a rapid heart rate, abnormal heart rhythms and seizures.<\/p>\n

Although rare, there have been some deaths linked to excess caffeine.<\/p>\n

The sugary versions of the drinks can also contribute to obesity and damage teeth, according to The Association of UK Dieticians.<\/p>\n

Currently any drink, other than tea or coffee, with over 150mg requires a label warning of its high caffeine content that says it is not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women.<\/p>\n

For most adults, up to 400mg of caffeine a day, or about four cups of instant coffee or five cups of tea, is safe.<\/p>\n

Katharine Jenner, Executive Director of the Obesity Health Alliance, praised the policy and said restricting the sales of the drinks to children “at a vital time in their life is just common-sense”.<\/p>\n

The British Soft Drinks Association said the ban was “unnecessary”.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said: “Since 2010, our members have committed not to market or promote the sale of energy drinks to under-16s, and all high-caffeine beverages carry a ‘not recommended for children’ label.”<\/p>\n

The previous Conservative government had planned to introduce the ban, but scrapped the move in 2022, and said consumption should be a personal choice.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are also considering a ban.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ban comes after 1,100 responses to a consultation which strongly supported introducing an age restriction…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7179,1178,5924,800,866,3771],"class_list":["post-86741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-april","tag-banned","tag-drinks","tag-energy","tag-england","tag-under16s"],"yoast_head":"\nEnergy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-16T18:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/921a0740-8142-11f1-badc-afcab3cff8b6.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2026-07-16T18:57:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/921a0740-8142-11f1-badc-afcab3cff8b6.avif","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=86741"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April","datePublished":"2026-07-16T18:57:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=86741"},"wordCount":261,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/921a0740-8142-11f1-badc-afcab3cff8b6.avif","keywords":["April","banned","drinks","energy","England","under16s"],"articleSection":["Health"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=86741","url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","name":"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/921a0740-8142-11f1-badc-afcab3cff8b6.avif","datePublished":"2026-07-16T18:57:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/921a0740-8142-11f1-badc-afcab3cff8b6.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/921a0740-8142-11f1-badc-afcab3cff8b6.avif","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/czrjg0jxkpno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Energy drinks to be banned for under-16s in England from April"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}