Concerns raised over safety of artificial sweeteners

Source: Daily Record

An artificial sweetener commonly in food and drinks worldwide could be declared capable of causing cancer by a global health body.

Aspartame is a sweetener used in food and drink items like Diet Coke, some Snapple drinks, and even Mars' Extra chewing gum.

Sources from Reuters have said that the World Health Organization's (WHO) cancer research body could potentially dub the sweetener as a carcinogen - a substance that is capable of causing cancer. Finalized earlier in June, the ruling from the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) intends to find whether something is a potential hazard to humans based on all the evidence currently published.

However, this evidence and ruling does not take into account how much of the product a person can safely consume before it becomes a potential danger.

The advice on consumption levels comes from another expert committee for WHO - the Joint WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization's Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) - alongside evidence from other national regulators.

This committee is reviewing aspartame use this year, beginning at the end of June and publicizing its decision by July 14. Since 1981, JECFA has noted that aspartame is safe to consume within accepted daily limits.

The committee used the example of an adult that weighs 60kg, who would have to consume between 12 and 36 cans of something like Diet Coke every single day in order to be at risk.

This view has been widely accepted and shared by international regulators, including across Europe and the United States.

An IARC spokesperson said both the IARC and JECFA committees' findings were confidential until the publicizing in July. However, they were "complementary", with IARC's conclusion representing the "first fundamental step to understand carcinogenicity". The JECFA committee said that they "conduct a risk assessment, which determines the probability of a specific type of harm (e.g. cancer) to occur under certain conditions and levels of exposure."

However, according to sources from Reuters, industry regulators are reported to fear that holding both processes simultaneously could cause some confusion.

The source added that Nozomi Tomita, an official from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, wrote a letter to WHO's deputy director general, Zsuzsanna Jakab, back in March, saying: "We kindly ask both bodies to coordinate their efforts in reviewing aspartame to avoid any confusion or concerns among the public."

This alleged letter also called for conclusions from both committees to be made on the same day - which is now happening on July 14. The International Sweeteners Association says no conclusions can be drawn until the publication of both reports.

Frances Hunt-Wood, ISA's secretary general, said: "IARC is not a food safety body. The World Health Organization’s Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is currently conducting a comprehensive food safety review of aspartame and no conclusions can be drawn until both reports are published.

"Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly researched ingredients in history, with over 90 food safety agencies across the globe declaring it is safe, including the European Food Safety Authority, which conducted the most comprehensive safety evaluation of aspartame to date."