From January 1, 2024, there will be a ban on the sale of energy drinks to people under 18 years of age in Poland. The new regulations aim to limit the consumption of these products by young people, who are particularly susceptible to their negative health effects. The change in regulations received considerable coverage in the Polish media, sparking extensive discussions. How will the planned restriction on the sale of energy drinks affect their sales? Should we expect a noticeable drop in demand and an increase in prices?

Energy drinks for adults only

The Polish government, in the Act of August 17, 2023 amending the Public Health Act and certain other acts, published on August 28, 2023, introduced a ban on the sale of drinks with added taurine and caffeine (i.e. popular "energy drinks" or "energy drinks") to minors The sales ban covers, among others, areas of educational institutions, energy products will also be unavailable in popular vending machines, which were previously often used to distribute the products in question.

What exactly are "drinks with added taurine and caffeine"? Fortunately, the Act defines such products quite precisely. From the content of the document we can learn that "energy drink" is a food drink, included in the Polish Classification of Products and Services, which contains caffeine in a proportion exceeding 150 mg/l or taurine, excluding substances occurring naturally in them. The ban on the sale of such drinks will formally apply from January 1, 2024 throughout Poland.

Was such a ban necessary at all?

Does the ban on the sale of energy drinks to people under 18 make sense and was it necessary? Statistics forced the Polish government to consider this issue. The report of the National Institute of Public Health of the National Research Institute, prepared in 2021 on the basis of a national study on the diet and nutritional status of the Polish population, states that as many as 2.1% of children aged 3-9 years old regularly consume energy drinks. This percentage is much higher in the older age group (youth 10-17 years old): as many as 35.7% of boys and 27.4% of girls drink energy drinks regularly.

Young people in high schools and young people practicing sports are most likely to use energy. A large proportion of teenagers and children consuming them, as many as 60%, reach for energy drinks because of their taste, and 31% treat them as a source of energy. Some minors mistakenly believe that energy drinks will better satisfy their thirst (which is not true).

Why were these statistics so alarming? According to the National Nutrition Center:

“The ingredients in energy drinks can have a very harmful effect on children's health. Caffeine is the basic ingredient of these drinks, but it is not recommended in the diet of children because it has psychoactive effects. An increase in its consumption by children may cause mood changes, irritability, anxiety, and the consumption of large amounts (5 mg/kg body weight/day) causes an increase in blood pressure. In addition, caffeine negatively affects calcium metabolism, which may cause disorders in the bone formation process. High caffeine consumption may also affect the length and quality of children's sleep. Children with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, kidney and liver diseases, hyperthyroidism and emotionally unstable children are at particular risk.”

Lower body weight in children and some adolescents may cause the ingredients of energy drinks to reach higher, toxic concentrations in the body. While drinking one drink may not cause any side effects in an adult, a child may experience:

  • Dizziness and headaches
  • Stomach pain,
  • Glucose-insulin metabolism disorders (regular consumption of energy drinks may cause insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes),
  • Palpitations,
  • Developmental disorders of the nervous system,
  • Problems with sleeping,
  • Calcium metabolism disorders,
  • excessive sweating,
  • Feeling broken, lack of concentration or excessive stimulation and irritability.

The impact of the ban on the level of sales of energy drinks

Will the ban on the sale of energy drinks to minors affect the sales of these products? This is primarily the concern of producers and distributors of drinks containing taurine and caffeine. Forecasts vary - some fear a drop in sales of as much as 20%. In turn, according to Agnieszka Górnicka, president of the Polish research agency Inquiry, the decline in sales may reach from 5% to 10% in the entire category. However, it is still a lot, although it is not a decline that producers, distributors and stores could not cope with.

According to Inquiry estimates, the greatest consumption of energy drinks is still among adults, and minors constitute less than 10% of all Polish consumers of these products. According to statistics, the group most often reaching for drinks with taurine and caffeine are young adults aged 25-34 and they constitute approximately 33% of all energy consumers. These are people who will no longer be covered by the ban.

Consumers of energy drinks and sellers, in turn, are afraid of the increase in prices of these products - and it may be adequate to the sales declines or even higher. Time will tell whether producers and distributors will want to "make up for the losses" by passing the costs on to the customer.

The planned introduction of the ban also raises questions about its effective enforcement. While removing energy drinks from school stores and vending machines seems feasible, what will it look like in the case of large stores, especially those equipped with self-service checkouts? Will the staff effectively verify every young person buying an energy drink - similarly to alcohol?

There is also immediate concern about the appearance of the so-called "gray zone". In short, experts believe that young people will find ways to get energy drinks anyway (and add to this the psychological effect of "forbidden fruit"). Older colleagues can help them get energy drinks, but they should also be afraid of sellers who will not properly enforce their obligation to control people buying energy drinks.

Will the ban itself be effective?

Will the ban on the sale of energy drinks alone be effective and actually help protect the health of young Poles? Some people consider the government's decision to be right, others remain skeptical about it, predicting that the ban will hit producers, sellers and adult consumers of energy products rather than actually improve the quality of nutrition for children and adolescents.

In the case of children and adolescents, the psychological effect of "forbidden fruit" may also be strong, i.e. a situation in which something forbidden, inaccessible or difficult to access becomes much more desirable. Sometimes the "forbidden fruit" effect works paradoxically: a person suddenly becomes interested in an item, although without the prohibition he would not have paid attention to it at all.

For this reason, in addition to limiting the sale of energy drinks, the government also plans to introduce other measures aimed at limiting their consumption by young people. These include:

  • introducing the obligation to include information on energy drinks packaging about the harmfulness of these products to the health of young people,
  • conducting educational campaigns addressed to parents and young people about the negative health effects of energy consumption.

Whether the campaign, along with a formal ban on the sale of energy drinks to minors, will prove effective - only time will tell. The same will happen in the case of sales volume: on the one hand, its decline will be unfavorable for entrepreneurs, on the other hand, it will show that the problem of energy consumption by minors really existed and the government's actions helped to reduce it. If the decline in sales is small, it may lead to two different conclusions: either the problem was not as big as it seemed, or the restrictions introduced will prove difficult to enforce.