Sweetener in soft drinks, chewing gum is carcinogenic, WHO now says
Aspartame being labelled a carcinogen comes just months after the WHO advised governments to regulate non-sugar sweeteners.
A common artificial sweetener used in the manufacture of some soft drinks, candy and chewing gum is likely to be labelled a carcinogen next month, sources have told Reuters.
The sweetener, aspartame, is one of six artificial sweeteners approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a sugar substitute. Such alternatives are touted as being low in calories.
In one of the most frequently asked questions to the Coca-Cola Company in Australia, which is the first answer that comes up when you search for aspartame online, the firm says that the sweetener, used in one of its drinks, is safe and meets food safety standards.
“Aspartame is safe. Over 200 scientific studies support its safety,” it says.
However, the company issues a warning to people with a rare genetic condition called phenylketonuria.
“Food and beverage products containing aspartame carry a statement on the label alerting people with this condition to the presence of phenylalanine. But the fact that a small proportion of the population has this rare condition does not in any way mean that aspartame is unsafe for other consumers,” says Coca-Cola.
The likelihood of aspartame being labelled a carcinogen comes just months after the World Health Organization (WHO) advised governments to regulate non-sugar sweeteners “to control body weight or reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)”.
Cancer is one of the main types of NCDs, and data from the WHO last year ranked it as the leading cause of death worldwide.
The announcement is to be made after deliberations by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and WHO’s cancer research arm.
“Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) does not help with long-term weight control. People need to consider other ways to reduce their intake of free sugars, such as consuming foods with naturally occurring sugars, such as fruit, or unsweetened foods and beverages,” said Dr Francesco Branca, WHO Director of Nutrition and Food Safety.
“NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the overall sweetness of their diet, starting early in life, to improve their health,” he added.
WHO’s Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) will now focus on the risk assessment, which will provide guidance on the specific harm caused by the additive. The same committee has for over four decades found no problem with aspartame when consumed at acceptable levels.
However, IARC’s findings have been criticised.
“IARC is not a food safety body and its review of aspartame is not scientifically comprehensive and relies heavily on widely discredited research,” Frances Hunt-Wood, secretary general of the International Sweeteners Association, told Reuters.
An IARC representative said that the findings of their organisation and the JECFA committee were confidential until July.
He told the news agency that the findings were “complementary”, with IARC’s conclusion representing “the first fundamental step in understanding carcinogenicity”.
“The additives committee ‘conducts a risk assessment’, which determines the likelihood of a particular type of harm, such as cancer, occurring under certain conditions and levels of exposure,” the IARC spokesman said.
A study published last year in the PLOS One journal found that consumption of artificial sweeteners (they mentioned aspartame) could probably cause breast cancer or obesity-related cancers.
The IARC and WHO committee’s findings will be published on July 14.
