What Is Aspartame: The Sweetener In Soft Drinks, Chewing Gums That WHO May Declare As ‘Possibly Carcinogenic’

Aspartame was discovered by an American chemist, James Schlatter. It is about 200 times sweeter than the regular table sugar.

Aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in soft drinks, is set to be declared a possible carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization's (WHO) cancer research arm, as per reports. As the reports surfaced, Coca-Cola's stock price crashed and on Thursday (June 29), the stock price closed at $60.02 apiece, down 0.83 per cent from its previous closing in the New York Stock Exchange.

What Is Aspartame?

Aspartame was discovered by an American chemist, James Schlatter. It is about 200 times sweeter than the regular table sugar. According to news agency Reuters, the sweetener was approved in 1974 by U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as a tabletop sweetener and as an additive in chewing gum, cereals, and dry bases for foods.

Aspartame comprises two amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine, as per a report by India Today. They are naturally occurring amino acids in many protein-rich foods. The safety of this sweetener has been surrounded by controversy over the years. Initially, it was introduced to replace sucrose.

What Products Carry Aspartame? 

The sweetener can be found in soft drinks, gelatin, confectionery, desserts, and sugar-free cough drops. Besides that, it is also used to increase flavouring of baked and canned foods, powdered drink mixes, candy, and puddings.

How Many Countries Use Aspartame?

Aspartame has been reviewed and found safe for human use by more than ninety countries, as reported by Reuters. The countries include the UK, Spain, France, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

United States federal agency Food and Drug Administration has pinned the acceptable daily intake for the sweetener at 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, the European regulatory body recommends a slightly lower ADI at 40 mg/kg/day, Reuters reported citing FDA, EFSA.

What Has WHO Said On Aspartame So Far?

The sweetener is currently being reviewed by two different WHO groups - IARC and the Joint Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives, or JECFA.

Reuters reported that the IARC ruling was finalised earlier this month after a meeting of the group's external experts and is intended to assess whether something is a potential hazard or not, based on all the published evidence.

However, the assessment does not take into account how much product a person can safely consume. "This advice for individuals comes from a separate WHO expert committee on food additives, known as JECFA (the Joint WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization's Expert Committee on Food Additives), alongside determinations from national regulators," Reuters said in its report.

On June 2022, The Washington Post reported that JECFA was slated to meet from June 27 to July 6 to give an update on its risk assessment of aspartame, including a review of how much can be consumed safely.