Mars Wrigley has trademarked its controversial caffeinated gum brand Alert in the UK.
It has applied to register the brand name as a trademark with the Intellectual Property Office under class 5, accounting for energy supplements in the form of chewing gum; and class 30, covering chewing gum and candy.
Mars Wrigley debuted Alert Energy Gum – which contained 40mg caffeine per piece of gum (equivalent to half a cup of coffee) – in May 2013 but halted production within a matter of weeks, after the Food & Drug Administration announced it was investigating the safety of caffeine in foods.
Despite having said it would wait for the FDA to develop a regulatory framework on caffeine in confectionery, Mars brought the chewing gum brand back as ‘Alert Caffeine Gum’ in 2017, before such guidelines were published.
The flavour variants – Mint and Fruit – format, and caffeine content of the gum remained unchanged.
When approached by The Grocer, a Mars Wrigley spokeswoman said: “We have no plans to launch Alert in the UK at this time.”
At the time of the US relaunch, however, then-senior manager of global confectionery category & brand communications at Mars Wrigley Michelle Green told Confectionery News: “We’ve spent the past four years evaluating new and existing research on caffeine and conducted a scientific study to close remaining knowledge gaps in the published literature.”
“There is emerging evidence that cumulative caffeine intake in the US, even with caffeinated chewing gum, is not associated with adverse effects,” Green added.
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