The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) has thrown its weight behind a campaign to stop the sale of energy drinks to under-16s.

Proposed by the Responsible Retailing of Energy Drinks (RRED), a lobby group fronted by Edinburgh councillor Norma Austin Hart, the scheme calls on retailers to not sell energy drinks to children due to concerns about their impact on health and behaviour.

SGF public affairs manager John Lee said it would be encouraging members to sign up to the voluntary scheme.

Although he said he had no reason to think that members were not already selling energy drinks responsibly, Lee believed it was important to raise awareness of the issue.

“We have over 2,000 stores in membership, so it is a sizeable chunk of the convenience store estate in Scotland and they are in every town, city, rural community and island community in Scotland,” he said. “I’m sure it would be a big boost to the campaign if we could encourage our members to sign up to it. The campaign seems to be a very positive one and we are very happy to look at proactively encouraging our members to get involved in it.”

He added: “Promoting responsible community retailing is really the aim of the SGF, so this is something we are more than happy to be involved in at this stage and see how we can take it forward with our members.”