SOFT drinks manufacturers are adding caffeine to their products, increasing the likelihood that children will become mildly addicted to them, scientific research has suggested.

Russell Keast of Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, and his team conducted more than 1,000 tests — in which participants tasted various drinks and laboratory-made concoctions — and found that they could detect no difference in taste whether or not there was caffeine in the drink.

Manufacturers claim they add caffeine, which is slightly addictive, because its bitter flavouring counteracts the sweetness of the soft drink. Caffeine is added to more than half soft drinks, particularly colas.

However, the conclusion of Keast’s team is that caffeine makes no difference to flavour. Instead, they suggest, manufacturers might add it to “modify consumer behaviour”.

Keast has called for a ban on marketing caffeine-added soft drinks to children. He is worried that they risk developing an addiction to the drinks, so increasing their intake of sugar and becoming obese.

Deakin concludes in his study, published this week in the academic journal Appetite: “As the consumption of soft drinks has been associated with the increase in childhood and adolescent obesity, there are public health reasons to remove caffeine from sweetened soft drinks.”

The average child in the UK consumes 73 litres of fizzy drinks a year, according to 2003 figures from the British Soft Drinks Association.

Keast said: “The level of caffeine found in 500ml of soft drink is enough to trigger the types of psychological and physiological responses that lead to addictive behaviour.

“A child who consumes a sugar-sweetened soft drink not only enjoys the sweet taste, but also associates the flavour with the positive effects of caffeine.”

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