Red Bull Funded Research That Blocked Energy Drink Regulations
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- A joint investigation by The Examination, The Bristol Cable, Daraj, Investico, Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, STAT, and the Toronto Star found Red Bull paid "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to university professors over more than a decade for research favorable to the energy drink industry.
- In February 2011, three scientists with Red Bull ties — Utrecht University researcher Joris Verster, a British professor, and Red Bull's chief scientific officer — testified before Suffolk County, NY lawmakers that a proposed ban on energy drink sales to minors had "no scientific basis"; lawmakers dropped the proposal.
- Of more than 100 studies reviewed, 95% of those funded by Red Bull or authored by researchers disclosing financial ties concluded mixing alcohol and energy drinks carried no additional risk, while roughly 80% of independent studies reached the opposite conclusion.
- A 2015 European food agency report cited industry-linked studies in finding no clear evidence mixing was harmful, and that report remains the basis for inaction in Europe and has been used to block measures elsewhere.
- In Boston, a team of scientists withdrew from a Red Bull-funded study after Verster refused to address methodological problems they believed would bias the results.
- Zachary Mitchell, a 21-year-old in Quebec, drowned in August 2016 after drinking several cans of Red Bull and about six beers; the coroner attributed his death to an arrhythmia triggered by the combination and called existing warning labels "insufficient" and "in small print."
- Red Bull sold nearly 14 billion cans worldwide last year; Global Head of Science Karlheinz Niederreiter defended the product's safety in a brief statement but declined to answer the outlets' specific findings about Red Bull-funded research.
Why it matters: Red Bull's decade-long funding of friendly university research shaped a 2015 European safety report and blocked age restrictions and warning labels in the U.S., Canada, and Europe — overriding the CDC and the roughly 80% of independent studies that found mixing carries real harm. Consumers like Zachary Mitchell's family say that translated into inadequate warnings on a product now sold at a scale of 14 billion cans a year.
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