G Fuel brands itself as the Energy Drink of eSports and gamers but the supplement has recently come under fire for not providing accurate warning labels on its products.
The Environmental Research Center is suing the company that makes G Fuel, Gamma Labs, for not warning consumers about the eighteen products the company produces that contain lead, which violates California’s Health and Safety Code. Gamma Labs is being accused of producing and selling products that contain more than the “safe” daily dose of lead, which is defined by California’s Proposition 65.
The State of California has determined that lead is known to cause cancer, birth defects, and possible reproductive harm. While there is no known fact about how much lead is okay for a person to consume, it is absolutely not safe to do so and it is not safe for children.
Gamma Labs was served a “60-Day Notice of Proposition 65 Violation” in August of last year, which means it had 60 days to comply and discontinue their business, or be taken to civil court if deemed necessary. This notice explicitly told Gamma Labs to reformulate their products, pay a civil penalty, and completely state the ingredients on the packaging of G Fuel.
Unfortunately, Gamma Labs did not comply to the notice and now faces a lawsuit. The Environmental Research Center hired their own laboratory to further investigate Gamma Labs and concluded that the G Fuel products they tested all contained more than the 0.5 ug per day.
One of the worst parts about this lawsuit is how often this particular energy drink is marketed to children. Many eSports players, the likes of the FaZe Clan and Team Kaliber, use G Fuel in some of their giveaways, which have no age restriction to enter.
In the past few years, news stories have come out about G Fuel and its potential harms to children. For example, a boy in Plymouth, Massachusetts was hospitalized from drinking G Fuel.
G Fuel, while still being really marketable to children, is really prominent in the eSports scene. eSports, now becoming an official Olympic sport in 2022, has really grown in the past few years and it is easy for fans to imagine that the competitors are using products like G Fuel and might not know how this is harming their bodies.
Hopefully, with the lawsuit going forward, players and eSports competitors will be more wary of promoting G Fuel, as it seems to be harming more people than it is helping.
