The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) is advising pregnant women to limit caffeine intake to 200 mg a day. The FSA had previously advised a maximum daily intake of 300 mg. The new guidelines follows research carried out on behalf of the FSA by the Universities of Leeds and Leicester.
“Too much caffeine might result in a baby having a lower birth weight than it should, which can increase the risk of some health conditions for the baby in later life, or could possibly result in spontaneous miscarriage.” FSA Press Release. “Professor Justin Konje, Chair of the Project Steering Group from the University of Leicester, said: ‘This was a large study involving about 2,500 pregnant women, designed to overcome the limitations of previous research in this area.’”
“This new advice doesn’t mean that pregnant women have to cut out caffeine completely, simply that they should be careful and make sure they don't have too much,” said Andrew Wadge, FSA chief scientist. “We would emphasize that the risks are likely to be very small and believe our new advice, which is based on new research and has been considered by leading independent scientists, is sensible and proportionate.”
