Announcement date
The Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Board approved Proposal P1056 – Caffeine Review on 10 March 2026 and on 1 May 2026 at the Food Ministers’ Meeting, Ministers agreed to not seek a review.
Link to announcement
The announcement can be found in the communique of outcomes from the Food Ministers’ Meeting held on 1 May 2026. The approval report and supporting documents can be found on the FSANZ web page for Proposal P1056.
Problem being addressed
FSANZ undertook a suite of assessments examining caffeine safety including a hazard assessment, dietary intake, social science literature review, and the assessment on the effects of caffeine on sports performance.
While the Food Standards Code includes some provisions that regulate highly concentrated caffeine in the food supply, the assessments identified gaps where the Code does not align with the evidence.
In particular, there are no specific caffeine requirements for formulated supplementary sports foods, resulting in some products on the market containing excessive caffeine levels, as well as inconsistent labelling, leading to increased risk of overconsumption. The Code also does not outright prohibit the addition of caffeine to foods and does not require disclosure when some coffee based beverages exceed safe caffeine levels, increasing the risk that consumers may unknowingly exceed safe recommended intake limits.
Proposal
The Decision Regulatory Impact Statement (DRIS) considered the following options:
- Option 1 – status quo (no change)
- Option 2 – regulatory option – a series of amendments to the Code
The Decision RIS includes a break-even analysis which found that consumers, government and/or industry would need to receive benefit at the amount of $0.26 to $0.52 per year per daily user of caffeinated FSSF (5.3% of adult population in Aus and NZ) for the benefits of the proposal to exceed the quantified costs.
Put differently, the analysis showed that consumers, government and/or industry would need to receive benefit at the amount of $294,532 to $583,856 per year over ten years for the benefits of the proposal to exceed the quantified cost.
Option 2 was identified as the preferred option based on the break-even analysis and because it was the option that best met the policy objectives of protecting public health and improving the quality of information provided to consumers.
Full descriptions of the proposed changes are provided in the Approval Report (which can be viewed on the P1056 website) along with the full text of the proposed changes to the Code.
Assessed Impact Analysis outcome
Compliant
The OIA considers that the consultation that has been undertaken to date is equivalent to a Consultation Regulation Impact Statement (Consultation RIS) under the Regulatory Impact Analysis Guide for Ministers Meetings and National Standard Setting Bodies (the Guide), as such only a Decision RIS was required. FSANZ provided the OIA with a letter outlining how the consultation process was equivalent to a Consultation RIS.