Safety Assessment of Sugar Substitutes
There have been extensive researches on low-calories sugar substitutes followed by meticulous inspections and law enforcements by official authorities in food industry. This is mainly due to achieving safety measures of sweetener content products rather than taste desirability and quality.
Any low-calorie sweetener present in food products is legally obligated to be stated in ingredients on the packages.
Analysis of the acceptable daily intake i.e. ADI must be carried out within adequate parameter before being legally permitted to process and manufacture. It is specified as milligrams per kg of body weight that can be safely followed for daily consumption.
The acceptable daily intake of each sweetener is evaluated cautiously to the extent that it is dramatically less than the safe portion for animals (resulting from laboratory animal experiments).
Basically the Food and Drug Administration is in charge of controlling the acceptable daily intake in the US while international authorization of the ADI is in association with distinguished organizations including the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the results of many scientific experiments, commonly used sugar substitutes do not have any connection with risk of cancer. The following outlines the safety aspects studied on certain low-calorie sweeteners:
Saccharin
In 1977, using saccharin was forbidden in Canada as a result of some studies carried out in laboratory on experimental rats; increasing risk of bladder cancers caused by saccharin precipitation. In the USA the manufacturers were legally obligated to label a warning (that saccharin may develop the risk of cancer in laboratory animal) on the packages of the Saccharin- content products.
However according to a thorough study by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences that ruled out the possibility of cancer induced by saccharin with deep analysis of the fact that cancer developing system in rats is quite different from human mechanisms since the major evaluation was concerned with rats metabolism of sodium after saccharin ingestion and this was considered as an improper theory when animals fed with different sodium salts like sodium citrate; the same symptoms of cancer was diagnosed.
Aspartame
Results of preliminary research suggested that aspartame might be carcinogenic to rats. Subsequently, consumption of this sweetener was banned in the US by the Food and Drug Administration.
However after hypothesis was denied resulting from several researches implemented by international experts concluding that aspartame has no cancer-inducing factor and it is safe to be consumed by human and was formally allowed to be used by authorized organization including the FDA and the WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.
During ingestion aspartame is chemically decomposed into smaller components such as aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The latter may be harmful to those suffering phenylketonuria; a genetic disease with insufficient hepatic enzyme (phenylalanine hydroxylase which is able to metabolize phenylalanine) that can lead to depositing phenylalanine and ultimately turning into phenylketone which is detectable in urine discharge. Thus it is required to be clearly specified on labels that ‘should not be used by phenylketonuria patients, contains phenylalanine’. This specification is a legal obligation in some countries like in the United Kingdom.
Neotame
According to the recent studies it has been confirmed that neotame has no toxic characteristic in addition to not having any adverse association with reproduction or offspring development. It also has no neurotoxic implication.
Furthermore, it has been reported that neotame is not even remotely carcinogenic and it is quickly excreted from the body with no dangerous sedimentation.
There is no legal obligation to label warning or caution on packages containing neotame and its suitability for everyone including pregnant women and diabetics has been approved.
Sucralose
Sucralose has been internationally approved to be used for human consumption and it has been legally confirmed that it has no contributory factor to cancer disease.
Many laboratory reports presented experimental results that significant percentage of the ingested sucralose is unabsorbed by the gastrointestinal tract and is normally eliminated through large intestine. Large amount of the absorbed sucralose from GI tract is taken from the blood by means of kidneys and discharged from the bladder and urine. The remaining absorbed portion of sucralose goes through the metabolizing situation.
Sucralose has also been determined that it has no toxicological influence when ingested in the human body within the acceptable daily amount.
Furthermore, it does not stimulate immunological system. Some laboratory experiments on rats which linked sucralose intake with lowering the normal weight of thymus became unacceptable due to the fact that animals were fed an extreme overdose of sucralose (750 mg/kg per day).
Cyclamate
This was forbidden for food application in 1969 as a result of research on laboratory animals fed high quantities of cyclamate and saccharin combination that implicated development of bladder cancer.
In spite of obtaining evidence of further studies showing that cyclamate is not carcinogenic-related, in some countries in the US the imposed regulation of banning was not withdrawn and remained the same.
However cyclamate as a sweetener is legally accepted in food products in over 55 countries including the UK and EU e.g. the Sweet’N Low products in which a few artificial sweeteners are used; cyclamate is absent in the US products and saccharin is forbidden in Canada.
Acesulfame potassium (ace-K)
Its general application in food industry has been approved by the US FDA in addition to having legal acceptability in the UK and Europe.
There are still criticism and concern about the quality and quantities of research already carried out to determine the safety of ace-K.
Hypothetical theory of its carcinogenic implication has been ruled out since the results of animal tests demonstrated no relation of this sweetener to cancer development.
Some reports of animal experiments have indicated the ability of ace-K to encourage irregular secretion of insulin in rodents which may lead to a condition of hypoglycemia (a level of too low blood sugar).
Stevia
This herbal plant has been very popular in Japan as a sweetener and it is marketed in Canada for supplement purpose.
In some countries there have been some regulatory restrictions on trading stevia e.g. the US authority has forbidden stevia marketing except for supplements which are required to be specifically labeled.
In vitro and in vivo safety assessments of steviol glycoside (sweet flavour agent of stevia) involving thorough studies on stevioside and rebaudioside have shown no genotoxicity in the obtained results. These experiments have also found absence of carcinogenic connection of these compounds.
