Sponsors (16)
The bill improves consumer information, targeted warnings, and federal study of caffeine and stimulant risks—especially helping children, pregnant people, and medically vulnerable individuals—at the cost of added compliance and campaign/reporting expenses, uneven coverage for small outlets, and uncertainty about whether limited funding and information-only measures will produce strong, immediate protection.
Consumers (including pregnant people and youth) will see explicit caffeine content and a 'High caffeine' warning at the point of sale for many chain-restaurant items and on packaged foods/supplements, enabling safer, more informed choices.
Vulnerable populations — children and adolescents, pregnant and breastfeeding people, and people with heart, seizure, or stimulant-sensitive mental-health conditions — receive clearer, targeted guidance and warnings that could reduce accidental overconsumption and adverse events.
Federal research, reporting, and oversight (FDA/NIH reports, GAO study, and dedicated research funding) improve public transparency and build an evidence base to guide future policy or regulatory action on added caffeine and stimulant blends.
Chain restaurants, packaged-food manufacturers, and other businesses will incur compliance costs to update menus, drive-through displays, and labels, and those costs may be passed to consumers through higher prices.
Protections are uneven because smaller restaurants (under the 20-location threshold) and some products are exempt, leaving gaps in consumer protection depending on where people buy items.
Potential regulatory tightening or changes (and industry pushback) could reduce availability or lead to reformulation of high-caffeine products, affecting consumers who rely on them and creating market disruption for some businesses.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires caffeine labeling on chain restaurant menus and packaged foods/supplements, mandates federal safety reviews and education campaigns, and orders a GAO study of marketing practices.
Introduced March 31, 2025 by Robert Menendez · Last progress March 31, 2025
Requires restaurants (chains with 20+ locations) to label menu items with high levels of added caffeine and list milligrams, and requires packaged foods and dietary supplements that contain caffeine to list milligrams and whether the caffeine is naturally occurring or added and to include a recommended daily-limit advisory. Directs the FDA and NIH to review caffeine and other stimulants’ safety (with reports to Congress), funds those reviews, directs a federal public education campaign on safe caffeine consumption for vulnerable groups, and orders a GAO study of marketing practices targeting children and teens.