St Joseph's School Food and Nutrition Policy restricts confectionery and soft drinks from being brought on or consumed on the school property or at school events. All Prime drinks and other sports drinks fall within the soft drink category. For more information, please read this article.

Prime energy drinks have hit the headlines this week. The school has received a couple of emails from concerned parents about student access to the potentially dangerous beverage. 

There are two types of Prime drinks available: the caffeine Energy drink and the Hydration drink. 

The Energy drink is sold in the United Kingdom and United States as an 18+ drink and has more than twice the caffeine of a cup of coffee. The quantity of caffeine in the drink exceeds the Food Standards Australia NZ  (FSANZ). As a result, it is illegal to import or sell the Energy drink in New Zealand. 

The hydration drink comes in a plastic bottle and contains coconut water, electrolytes, and B vitamins and is recommended for 15 years and above. As the Hydration drink complies with Food Standards it can be sold in New Zealand. 

Our investigation confirmed that there is no evidence to support the idea that the children at St Joseph's School have had at any access to the Energy drink. 

Our investigations have identified one occasion when the Hydration drink was consumed at school and one instance when a child supplied a hydration drink to others outside of the school. On all occasions, the hydration drink was supplied to the children by their parents. The school has been in contact with the families concerned. 

We understand that some of the children are using the Prime Hydration bottle as a water bottle at school because it is "cool". According to the NZ Herald, this is a common practice with many teenage boys across the country. 

The school's Food and Nutrition policy restricts the consumption of soft drinks on school grounds or at school events. As a point of clarification, all sports, hydration and energy drinks are classified as "soft drinks" so should not be brought to the school site. We would also discourage children from bringing bottles to school as it may result in them being accused of consuming the illegal drink by other children and or their parents.  

It is important that parents and the school work together to keep our children safe. We strongly encourage parents and caregivers not to use social media to communicate such concerns as often information is based on false information and rumour. Because the school can not monitor social media, it is likely that little will be done to address the issue. We appreciated the two parents who communicated directly to the school as this allowed us to investigate and resolve the issue for them.  

Footnote: Information about Prime drinks was sourced from the NZ Herald