The Food Scout

Considering the monster popularity of energy beverages (a $3.2 billion category last year) like SoBe and Red Bull, it was only a matter of time before packaged goods companies started dipping their toes — or their chips, that is — into caffeine and other stimulating ingredients.

Witness the already prolific gum & candy category, including Jolt, Blitz, Penguin, and Stay Alert gums, Buzz Bites energy chews, Javapops, Bawls Mints, and various brands of chocolate-covered espresso beans, like Crackheads. But until recently, these were the only solid caffeine/energy hit sources (complete with gritty aftertaste), unless you were interested in rubbing it on your lips via Spazzstick lip balm or rubbing it on via Shower Shock Caffeinated Body Wash (no, I’m not making this up).

Now companies like Golden Flake have thrown down the energy gauntlet and introduced a line of NRG potato chips, laced with taurine, caffeine, and B vitamins. For breakfast eaters, there’s Morning Spark Oatmeal (Sturm Foods), loaded with caffeine AND 6g of fiber AND 7g protein. And for crunchier types, there’s SumSeeds’ Caffeinated Sunflower Seeds (don’t ask me how). And be careful what you pick up and pour into your coffee from now on: Those innocent little coffee creamers that turn your java white might stoke it up instead, thanks to Whitewave’s Stok brand caffeinated black coffee shots, which deliver 40mg of caffeine per shot.

Surprisingly, the Center for Science in the Public Interest does not appear to be mounting an attack against this accelerated pace of the caffeinated food & beverage movement (not yet, at least). According to an interview in the Washington Post published today, a nutritionist for the CSPI called the risks of caffeine “relatively benign,” even in children. Movie theater popcorn and Chinese takeout, on the other hand, have been cited by this advocacy group as extremely dangerous. So, for now, it looks like kids have the green light to drink all the energy slushies and caffeinated potato chips they can handle, but cinema snacks and ethnic food is strictly off-limits.