Your morning cup of coffee could soon turn into a spoonful of peanut butter if a new company has its way.
Launched last year, a new product called STEEM Peanut Butter is now on grocery store shelves. Besides the typical healthy fats and proteins, this peanut butter contains 170 milligrams of caffeine per two tablespoon serving – the same amount of caffeine as two cups of coffee.
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The developers say that because peanut butter takes longer to digest than coffee, the caffeine is released slowly throughout the day without the consumer feeling jittery. The product also contains electrolytes and protein, which “makes it perfect not only for athletes and active people, but also for normal life,” according to the company website.
So far, STEEM is only available online and in a handful of stores in Connecticut and Massachusetts, but if U.S. Senator Charles Schumer has his way, it soon won’t be sold anywhere. Schumer said on Sunday that one serving of STEEM contains five times the amount of caffeine in one can of Coke.
Schumer urged the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the health effects of using caffeine in peanut butter and other products, and especially its effect among children. He also fears that STEEM could pave the way for other caffeine-heavy products to enter the market.
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“Caffeinated peanut butter should spur the agency to address the issue of caffeine,” he said. “They should put limits on how much is allowed, particularly in snack foods and foods that are not ingested for caffeine’s sake, like Red Bull. And they should certainly require warning labels.”
STEEM company executives told Quartz that the company “complied with any and every obligation we were required to before putting our product out on the shelves.”
