Health committee  What you find on a can of Red Bull is a description of the product and the statements we mentioned before. The product is not recommended for children, for pregnant and breast-feeding women, or for people sensitive to caffeine. It should not be mixed with alcohol. The recommended dose for a 250-millilitre can, for example, is not more than two cans.

Health committee  When it comes to the products being sold, from the little I know about the standards here in Canada when it comes to advertising.... For example, when we do TV advertising, the commercials have to be cleared by Advertising Standards Canada. Among other things, they look at the target group for the commercial to ensure that it is really targeted at adults and does not go in the wrong direction--for example, that it is not targeted at children.

Health committee  It's different. As I said, in Europe, these products are foods. In Canada, you not only have to get authorization for the product, where you have to confirm the safety and the efficacy of the product, but you also have to confirm the quality, you have to license the production sites, and you have to license the product, which is not required in Europe.

Health committee  No. There is not a single country where the sales are limited to pharmacies. This is something I hear very often, but it is not the case. In Norway, France, and Denmark, these products can be marketed freely, also in retail. And there is not a single country where the products have been banned.

Health committee  If I may take that, Denmark, France, and Norway approach the energy drinks as all the member states of the European Union do. There is a common framework for foods in Europe, which is decided on the European level and then implemented on the national level. In the case of energy drinks, in many member states of the European Union these products have to be approved on a case-by-case basis because of their composition.

Health committee  Yes, you are more stringent. I think this was explained already. In Canada, these products fall under the category of natural health products; they are not foods, as they are in all the other countries where we sell. I understand that there were good reasons for putting these products in there in 2004.

Health committee  Actually, Mr. Chair, the way the European Union approached it in 2002 was to issue a directive on the labelling of caffeine-containing beverages that exempted products with “coffee” or “tea” in the name from this quantitative labelling. This is actually where consumers run into the problem.

Health committee  On alcohol, this clearly also has to do with labelling. The label clearly indicates that this product is not for children and the label also clearly indicates that the product is not to be consumed with alcohol.

Health committee  I'll try really quickly. Thank you. Starting with marketing to children, I have to clearly say here that we do not market to children. When you look at our marketing activities, and this hasn't changed over the years—

Health committee  When you look at the events we are supporting, be it Formula One, be it Air Race, be it Crashed Ice, these are clearly events that are targeted at adults. When you look at the marketing activities we perform, when you look at the universities, for example, starting with students who are 18, yes, this is where we are.

Health committee  Yes, they would be mixing them. I think it would be an interesting mix for breakfast. As you say, taurine is a substance that occurs in the food we eat, so you will find it in meat products like beef and chicken. You will find it in larger quantities in seafood. It is what nutritionists call a non-essential amino acid.

Health committee  A can of Red Bull contains 1 gram or 1,000 milligrams.

Health committee  Yes, and that is per kilogram of body weight to no observed effect level. So if you did a scientific calculation--not a fully justified calculation, but at least to get the magnitude--this would correspond to 120 cans of Red Bull per day, which of course nobody would seriously consume.

Health committee  As was mentioned by Health Canada, there's range of sources for caffeine intake. The main source is coffee. Then you have tea and other products contributing to the daily caffeine intake. So advising consumers to not have more than two cans, which is 160 milligrams, is a reasonable approach to allow for other sources of caffeine in the diet.

Health committee  On the interaction of caffeine and taurine, I owe you an answer in a nutshell. The European Food Safety Authority has looked at that, and I recall one sentence from the summary report, to answer your question. They said that “...it was unlikely that d-glucuronolactone would have any interaction with caffeine, taurine, alcohol or the effects of exercise”.