Prime Energy drinks pulled from Canadian shelves — but how did they even get here? | CBC News

The recall of a highly caffeinated energy drink is raising questions about how the cans of Prime Energy that violated Canada’s health regulations got onto store shelves in the first place.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said Tuesday it is recalling cans of Prime Energy that contain 200 milligrams of caffeine after CBC News reported they were being sold in stores in at least three provinces. 

Health Canada’s limit for such drinks is 180 milligrams of caffeine. Other brands of energy drink are also part of the recall. 

One food law expert says, most often, items that violate Canada’s health regulations were exported by foreign manufacturers who don’t know the rules. 

“[They might be] unaware of the limits of caffeine or is unaware that certain food additives are not harmonized,” between Canada and the U.S., for example, said Glenford Jameson, a lawyer and partner at G.S. Jameson & Co. in Toronto. 

It would be up to a distributor to restrict the access, he says. 

But with e-commerce, that can get tricky. Jameson says big online retailers have struggled to follow regulations, but that the industry has seen improvements in making sure products follow each country’s standards. 

Another common way is through a third country.

A manufacturer might sell its product into another territory, where a distributor or merchant ends up exporting it to Canada, without letting the manufacturer know. 

“They’ve created this product, [it’s] deemed not to be safe or at least not compliant in Canada, yet it’s arriving here, and so then how do they manage that?” he said. “It’s a really difficult problem.” 

CBC News purchased a 200-milligram can of Prime Energy at a store in Montreal on Wednesday. Workers there said it was imported from the U.S. 

Prime said previously it “complies with federal regulations” in its markets but was unable to explain the presence of the drinks in Canada. The cans with 200 milligrams of caffeine are intended for the U.S. market. The company claims to have a Canadian version with 140 milligrams of caffeine. 

Prime did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday about the recall notice. 

‘Difficult to police’

Jameson says, even though food and drinks are supposed to be regulated at the border, agencies often miss items.

“If you sort of picture the amount of goods that come into Canada on any given day, it’s sort of difficult to police this sort of thing,” he said. 

While the CFIA establishes the rules for food, drink, plants and similar products coming to Canada, it’s the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that enforces those requirements before the goods are released into Canada, according to the CBSA.

The CFIA is “is often quite reactive,” said Jameson.

“They don’t spend a lot of time patrolling shelves or rifling through boxes at the border,” for lower-risk products like Prime Energy, he said. 

Dr. Jane Shearer, a kinesiology professor at the University of Calgary, says caffeine shouldn’t be under the CFIA purview because it’s a drug.

“It’s highly problematic,” she said. “I think energy drink companies have been largely in charge here and the Canadian government needs to do more on getting a handle on what’s in the market. This is not the first time we’ve seen products in the market that exceed Health Canada regulations.”

Health Canada’s recommended maximum caffeine intake for children up to age 18 is 2.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, per day. 

For adults, it’s no more than 400 milligrams. 

Coffee can sometimes have more than 180 milligrams of caffeine in a single serving, and is not as strictly regulated. But experts say the concern with energy drinks is how they’re marketed and whether it’s to vulnerable demographics. 

“It’s framed as being fun, it’s framed as being kind of trendy, it’s framed as being healthy and it’s framed also as optimizing your performance, when all it really is is water with caffeine in it,” said Timothy Caulfield, Canada research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta. 

“So I think it makes sense [that] regulators watch products like this to ensure that their claims are justified.” 

Consumer safety advocate Jim Shepherd agrees that the branding and marketing of these drinks attracts a younger demographic who could be unaware of the health consequences. 

That’s why he wants Canada to ban the sale of all energy drinks to people under 18. 

Shepherd, who lives in Toronto, believes that his son Brian’s consumption of a caffeinated energy drink caused the 15-year-old’s death in 2008. 

An autopsy found that Brian experienced an acute arrhythmic event following a paintball match. The only drug in his system was caffeine, according to Shepherd. 

It wasn’t until months after Brian’s death that Shepherd said he was told an energy drink company had attended the match and gave out samples of the drink, which his son consumed. 

Since then, he’s been advocating for better regulations. 

“There’s been some changes, but it’s 100 per cent not enough,” he said. 

“They really haven’t properly protected … youth and children. I really don’t care if an adult drinks the drinks, as long as they’re aware and I think that’s the part that’s key is most of them are not aware.”

Over the years, research has shown that these sorts of drinks can have bad health effects on people. This review of recent research says that energy drinks can create anxiety, insomnia, irregular heart rhythms and sometimes death. 

Shepherd says he wants to see the CFIA become more proactive and issue more penalties to bad players. 

“Unless somebody complains about it if it’s wrong, it’s not going to get corrected,” he said, adding that even when he’s filed complaints he hasn’t seen proper retribution. 

Shepherd says he’s been following the buzz created by Prime and knew it was a matter of time before it came to Canada. 

“My major concern is with the kids,” he said. “There isn’t awareness from a lot of parents to know what the potential danger that these drinks are.”