Aspartame - is the waiting game over?

Aspartame has been a high profile news item since July 2005, when the European Ramazzini Foundation (ERF) published its long term feeding study on rats (the largest conducted on the sweetener), and declared aspartame to be a carcinogen based on the evidence of its study.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of course took immediate action to call for the study results in order to conduct an independent review. The scene went rather quiet for several months until mid-May when EFSA detailed its findings. In the absence of a complete, immediate withdrawal of aspartame and aspartame-containing products from the market, it was somewhat predictable that the findings of the EFSA study were not the same as the findings of ERF.

Essentially, EFSA did not find evidence to support the claim that aspartame is a carcinogen or that there was any reason to revise the guidelines on acceptable daily intakes of the sweetener.

Good news for the extensive areas of the food and beverage industry that use aspartame ... at least in Europe. Interestingly the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also called for the results of the ERF study and is set to release its own findings after reviewing the results.

Could the US authorities come to a different conclusion than the European authorities? It seems unlikely, and for most sweetener suppliers, the EFSA report was probably hoped to be a conclusion to this particular interlude.

However, it seems it is not quite over yet as any difference in opinion between the findings of these two regulatory bodies could have global repercussions.

On the other hand, the FDA has consistently defended the safety of aspartame over many years of challenge from various lobbying sectors, therefore this is most likely to simply be an exercise of ensuring that all i's are dotted and t's crossed!

Jean Feord is business manager for legislation at Leatherhead Food International​