Does Coke Zero have caffeine?

How much caffeine is in a can of Coke Zero?

A 12 fl oz can of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar has 34 mg of caffeine. That is Coca-Cola’s own figure, from its own product page, and it is the same figure the company gives for regular Coke. The recipe lost the sugar and the calories. It kept everything that keeps you up.

Zero means the sugar. The caffeine never got the memo

Every number below was read off the page of the company that fills the can, on the day this was written. Flavor does not move it: cherry and vanilla, with sugar or without, carry the same figure as the original.

Labels are claims, so it is fair to ask whether anyone has checked them. Someone has, at least once: a 2007 lab study.

A 2007 study in the Journal of Food Science measured caffeine by HPLC in 56 national-brand and 75 store-brand carbonated drinks. Its abstract, which is all we have read, gives per 12 oz: Coca-Cola 33.9 mg, Diet Coke 46.3 mg, Pepsi 38.9 mg, Diet Pepsi 36.7 mg, Dr Pepper 42.6 mg, Diet Dr Pepper 44.1 mg, Mountain Dew 54.8 mg and Diet Mountain Dew 55.2 mg. The abstract gives no figure for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and no sampling dates. 143

The lab found 33.9 mg in Coca-Cola against a label of 34 mg, and 46.3 mg in Diet Coke against 46 mg. In 2007 the labels held. Coke Zero is not in the abstract, so for that can the label is all we found.

Is there a caffeine-free Coke Zero?

Yes. In the US it is called Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Caffeine Free, and Coca-Cola describes it as the same drink without any caffeine. In Canada the company sells it as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine. The words are part of the product name, so the way to tell the cans apart is to read the can. A plain Coke Zero with no such words on it has the caffeine.

The Coca-Cola Company says caffeine is one of the ingredients that helps give Coca-Cola its taste. It sells caffeine-free versions of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and says Sprite and Fresca are caffeine free as well. 129130

Note the wording. Coca-Cola says without any caffeine; it does not print a lab result. That is why this page gives the maker’s words, and not a measured zero.

Does Coke Zero have less caffeine than Coke or Diet Coke?

The same as Coke, and less than Diet Coke. This is the part the label does not explain: going sugar-free is not caffeine-neutral, and which way it moves depends entirely on the brand.

• Coke to Coke Zero: flat. 34 mg becomes 34 mg.
• Coke to Diet Coke: up. 34 mg becomes 46 mg.
• Pepsi to Pepsi Zero Sugar: flat at 38 mg. Pepsi to Diet Pepsi: down, to 35 mg.
• Dr Pepper to Dr Pepper Zero Sugar: flat, at the maker’s approximate 41 mg.
• Mountain Dew to Mountain Dew Zero Sugar: up, from 54 mg to 68 mg. Diet Mountain Dew stays at 54 mg.

Diet Coke people already knew. Look at them

Even inside one brand the rule breaks: Diet Coke is the high one, and the cherry version of it sits back down with the rest of the family. If the caffeine is what you are managing, the word on the front of the can tells you nothing. The number does.

Does Dr Pepper have caffeine? Does Sprite?

Dr Pepper does, a little more than Coke. Sprite does not. Root beer depends on whose name is on it, which is the kind of thing a person should be told. Every soda that has none has its own list, and so does every Dr Pepper.

One note while we are here. PepsiCo’s own page gives Pepsi Zero Sugar 38 mg, the same as regular Pepsi. FDA’s range for a caffeinated soft drink is 23–83 mg in the same serving, so Coke Zero sits toward the bottom of it and Mountain Dew Zero Sugar toward the top.

How much caffeine is in a bottle of Coke Zero?

The product page gives caffeine for one serving size only, but Coca-Cola’s label pages, one per barcode, state the bottles too. Every Coca-Cola and Diet Coke size is in how much caffeine is in Coke.

Coca-Cola’s US SmartLabel pages state 48 mg of caffeine in a 16.9 fl oz bottle of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, 57 mg in a 20 fl oz bottle and 21 mg in a 7.5 fl oz can, the same figures they state for regular Coca-Cola at those sizes. 574575573544545534

Coca-Cola’s Canadian site states 34 mg of caffeine in a 355 mL can of Coke Zero and 48 mg per 500 mL bottle. Its Philippines site states 32 mg in a 330 ml can of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. Its US product page states caffeine for the 12 fl oz serving only. 1251264

Canada’s label states 48 mg for its 500 mL bottle, the same as the US 16.9 fl oz bottle, which is also 500 mL. The Philippines can is a little smaller and so is its number. If you are reading this outside North America, your can says what your can says; we did not check every country and will not guess.

Is there a legal limit on caffeine in cola?

In the US, yes, and it is older and vaguer than you would hope.

US regulation 21 CFR 182.1180 lists caffeine as generally recognized as safe when used in cola-type beverages in accordance with good manufacturing practice, with a tolerance of 0.02 percent. The rule states no milligram figure and no serving size, and does not say whether the percentage is by weight or by volume. 142

Our arithmetic, not the rule’s: 0.02 percent is 200 parts per million, which for a drink weighing about 1 g per ml is about 200 mg per liter, or about 71 mg in 12 fl oz. On that reading Coca-Cola Zero Sugar’s 34 mg is about 48% of the tolerance, Diet Coke’s 46 mg about 65% and Mountain Dew Zero Sugar’s 68 mg about 96%. Mountain Dew is not a cola, and the rule does not say whether its wording covers one. 1424122134

I did the maths. You can keep ignoring it

So on our reading, and it is only ours, a can of Coke Zero uses about 48% of what the rule allows a cola and Diet Coke about 65%. Nobody in this table is pushing the ceiling except a drink that is not a cola.

Is 34 mg of caffeine a lot?

On its own, no. A 200 ml filter coffee is about 80 mg, a single espresso 63.6 mg and a small can of Red Bull 80 mg. A can of Coke Zero is less than half a filter coffee. The full list of drinks has the rest, and the Monster article covers the cans that are trying.

One 12 fl oz can of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, at 34 mg, is 8.5% of the 400 mg a day that EFSA says raises no safety concern for healthy non-pregnant adults, and it would take 11.8 cans to reach that amount. This is our arithmetic, and it counts caffeine from this one drink only. 422

11 cans deep and still under the guideline. Legally fine, spiritually carbonated

But nobody drinks caffeine as a daily total. You drink it at a time, and it leaves slowly: the half-life in healthy adults averages 4 hours and runs from 2 hours to 8 hours. That average is the source’s; the instrument’s default is five hours, and you can drag it. The can with dinner is the one still around at midnight. How long caffeine stays in your system has the arithmetic.

A single 100 mg dose of caffeine, about 1.4 mg/kg body weight for a 70 kg adult, may increase the time it takes to fall asleep and reduce sleep duration in some adults, particularly when taken close to bedtime. 2223

One can is well under that dose. A few of them through an evening, on top of the day’s coffee, is a different sum, and the label on each can will not do it for you.