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 drinks 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.
Social media influencers Logan Paul and KSI meet fans during a Prime promotional event in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 27. (REUTERS)
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.
Food law expert Glenford Jameson says there are a number of ways items not eligible for sale in Canada can get into the country. (Jennifer La Grassa/CBC)
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.”
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.
Timothy Caulfield is the Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Alberta. (David MacIntosh/CBC)
“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.
Brian Shepherd died in 2008 when he was 15 years old. His dad says he collapsed after a paintball match. (Submitted by Jim 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.”
Food regulator recalling highly caffeinated energy drink
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is recalling a highly caffeinated version of the Prime energy drink that is not approved for sale in Canada after discovering it was being sold in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta. With influencers endorsing it, experts worry many kids are drinking it and potentially hurting themselves.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
