FDA Fully Approves Gummy Bears for Long Run Use
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it has granted full approval of gummy bears for use as long run fuel, calling the chewy, fruit-flavored candies “safe and effective alternatives to sports-nutrition products such as energy gels, chews, and the like.”
Before today’s decision, the agency had allowed runners to consume gummy bears during long runs and races under an emergency use authorization, or EUA. Some runners had been reluctant to try the sweet treats under that provision, worried that such use was “experimental” and possibly unsafe.
The FDA’s full approval should allay those fears, experts said.
“If you are a runner who hasn’t used gummy bears to fuel your long runs and races because they did not have full FDA approval, well, now they do,” said Polly Noonan, Pd.D., a professor of gelatinous sucrose studies at Rooney University. “You have no more excuses.”
Overwhelmingly, however, runners cheered the announcement—as did the gummy bear industry.
“We welcome news of the FDA’s full approval of our sweet, carb-dense product for sports nutrition use,” said Dee Dee Rescher, president of the American Gummy Council, a trade group. “We have known all along that gummy bears are not just delicious but a fun, reliable way for endurance athletes to fuel long runs. And now, it’s official.”
Still, a few runners remained wary.
“No way,” said one such skeptic, Jeffrey Jones, in a Facebook post. “My cousin is an ER doctor and she says she saw someone recently who was using gummy bears on a long run and got hit by a car.”
“But the [mainstream media] doesn’t want you to hear stories like that.”
