Discovered in 1965, aspartame is a low-calorie sweetener with a sugar-like taste but it is approximately 200 times sweeter than sucrose. Today, aspartame has established itself as an important component in thousands of foods and drinks.
Aspartame is found in more than 6,000 products around the world, including carbonated soft drinks, powdered soft drinks, chewing gum, confections, gelatins, dessert mixes, puddings and fillings, frozen desserts, yoghurt, table-top sweeteners and some pharmaceuticals such as vitamins and sugar-free cough drops.
Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly studied food ingredients, with more than 200 scientific studies confirming its safety. In 1981 aspartame was approved for use in table-top sweeteners and various foods and dry beverage mixes, making it the first low-calorie sweetener approved by the US Foods and Drugs Administration (FDA) in more than 25 years. In 1983, the FDA approved aspartame for use in carbonated drinks. This was followed by a number of other product category approvals over the next 13 years, leading to a general use approval in foods and drinks in 1996. In addition to FDA, the JECFA 1, SCF2 and regulatory authorities in more than 100 countries have reviewed aspartame and found it to be safe for use.
Dr David Ashton MD PhD
References:
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The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is an international expert sceintific committee, administered jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United nations (FAO) and the World health Organisation (WHO).
- The Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) was originally established by a European Commission Decision 74/234/EEC of 16 April 1974 (OJ L 136, 20.05.1974) replaced by Commission Decision 95/273/EC of 6 July 1995, to advise the Commission on any problem relating to the protection of the health and safety of persons arising or likely to arise from the consumption of food, in articular on nutritional, hygienic and toxicological issues.
