Common artificial sweetener Aspartame, used in soft drinks, is set to be declared a possible carcinogen causing cancer by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization's (WHO) cancer research arm, Reuters reported.
Aspartame is used in products from Coca-Cola diet sodas to Mars' Extra chewing gum and some Snapple drinks and will be listed in July as "possibly carcinogenic to humans".
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 assesment 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.
Soon after, Coca-Cola's stock price crashed and on Thursday (June 29), Coca-Cola stock price closed at $60.02 apiece, down 0.83 per cent from its previous closing in the New York Stock Exchange. However, this is not the first time Coke suffered a setback. Earlier, Cristiano Ronaldo’s gesture for people to drink water instead of Coke at a Euro 2020 press conference cost the soda company $4 billion in market value.
Similar IARC rulings in the past for different substances have raised concerns among consumers about their use, led to lawsuits, and pressured manufacturers to recreate recipes and swap to alternatives. That has led to criticism that the IARC's assessments can be confusing to the public, as reported by Reuters. JECFA, the WHO committee on additives, is also reviewing aspartame use this year. Its meeting started at the end of June and it is due to announce its findings on the same day that the IARC makes public its decision on July 14.