Standards for artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame

Dear All,

Doea anyone know where the world stands regarding synthetic sweetners especially Aspartame....does it truely have adverse health effects on its consumers or is it just a myth...
I manage 3rd party offshore caterers for Exxon Mobil Nigeria and recently the guys on the offshore platforms decided to reject the soft drinks delivered to them due to aspartame in it.....sadly thier complaints came directly to my desk and i need to know how to convince them that its no big deal or otherwise.

Anyone with ideas?

Dear Theo,

Welcome to the forum.

Try this thread - http://www.ifsqn.com...mp;hl=aspartame
(ca April 2007)

Quite a lot more in the forum search option.

Rgds / Charles.C

added - , apologies, "2007"above shud hv been 2006. There is another 2007 FDA link (try search) but this seems now rather more cautious regarding definite conclusions

Theo
I had not been able to locate the specific Codex file (its somewhere) but Aspartame (along with many other intense artificial sweeteners) were singled out pending further investigations and good reasons for continuity otherwise would be removed as an approved "artificial sweeteners" by Codex. This was quire recent. Companies worldwide are avoiding Aspartame for obvious health reasons.
Regards

Not so long ago, aspartame was a hot topic when Italian Researchers found evidence that aspartame was linked to cancer.
The European Commission researched it and concluded that the Italian study wasn't valid/not conclusive and aspartame was still allowed to be consumed. (search for "italian cancer study" on google).

Is aspartame really bad? Difficult question, but the least i can say, is that aspartame has a strange story of discovery (http://www.wnho.net/...f_aspartame.htm).

My opinion? (I'm a researcher, departement sugar/sweeterners/fibers)
As long as a person does not exagerate their sweeteners consumption, just enjoy it. Just like anything else in the world :-)

Some people will say i'm crazy but it's all about choices: smoke? (get lung cancer), like a good bbq? (lots of pcb and dioxins), like sugar in stead of sweeteners (be carefull for diabetes), watch television in stead of going to the gym (not good for your heart health)...

Just wanna say, enjoy life but don't exagerate the consumption of sweeteners

Hello Theo...

Well, in my country, I face some difficulties with sweeteners too.. I worked on the seasoning flavor area, and the government was forbide the usage of saccharine and cyclamate in my products (seasoning powder that usually apllied on snacks), but they allow the usage of aspartame and acesulfame. I think it would be wise to consider the regulation that valid in your country or region (or even world), so if someone ask you again the same thing, you could sent them back an argument.

And I totally agreed with Enya: Just dont get over it too much.. He3..:)

Regards,


Arya