In July, the leading health organization plans to declare one of the world’s most popular artificial sweeteners – aspartame – a carcinogen, Reuters reports.
Aspartame is used in a huge range of products, from Coca-Cola diet sodas to Mars’ chewing gum, and sources close to the study told Reuters that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will put it on a list of “possibly carcinogenic” products in July.
The IARC’s decision was made in June after a meeting with invited experts and is intended to assess whether a product is dangerous based on all publicly available evidence. In this case, it is not evaluated how much is permissible for human consumption – such recommendations are developed by the WHO food additive expert commission JECFA together with the regulators of each specific country.
Similar IARC decisions in the past have forced consumers to reconsider their habits, led to lawsuits,
and forced manufacturers to reformulate recipes and turn to alternatives. Critics have pointed out that IARC ratings can mislead the public.
JECFA is also evaluating aspartame this year. It began work on the matter in late June, and the committee’s findings are expected to be released on the 14th of July, at the same time as the IARC decision.
Since 1981, JECFA has adhered to the recommendations that aspartame is safe for consumption as long as the prescribed daily dose is not exceeded. For example, a 60-kilogram adult would need to drink between 12 and 36 cans of lemonade each day (depending on the amount of aspartame in the product) to exceed the limit. This principle is followed by most of the world’s regulators, including the US and Europe.
Some countries have already
expressed concern about whether the decisions of IARC and JECFA will not be contradictory and cause confusion.
IARC decisions can have a big impact. In 2015, the committee decided that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic”. Even after the decision was later challenged by other agencies, the companies suffered losses. In 2021, Germany’s Bayer lost its third appeal against the US court’s decisions, which ordered the payment of compensation to customers who linked cancer to glyphosate in Bayer’s herbicides.
The IARC classification has four levels: carcinogenic, probably carcinogenic, possibly carcinogenic, and not classifiable.
The classification is mainly based on the evidence obtained and not on the hazard of the substance itself.
The first group includes products and substances for which convincing evidence has been obtained that they cause cancer, such as industrially processed meat and asbestos.
Prolonged work during the night hours and consumption of large amounts of red meat corresponds to the class of probable carcinogens. This means that there is limited evidence that these substances or situations cause cancer in humans, and more and stronger evidence is needed.
The electromagnetic field of radio waves associated with mobile phones has a possible carcinogenic effect. As with aspartame, this means that there is very limited evidence that radio waves or aspartame cause cancer in humans.
Sufficient evidence has not been obtained for the substances belonging to the last group.
Aspartame has been extensively studied for many years. A study conducted in France last year with 100,000 participants found that people who consume large amounts of artificial sweeteners have a slightly increased risk of cancer. However, the study does not show a direct association of aspartame with increased risk.
Beverage maker Pepsico recipe changes in recent years shed light on the industry’s efforts to balance taste with health concerns. Pepsico refused to use aspartame in 2015, resumed its use a year later, and
in 2020 decided not to use this artificial sweetener.
In May, the WHO published new guidelines recommending against the use of artificial sweeteners as a means of weight control. They drew protests from food manufacturers, who argued that artificial sweeteners could help people who want to cut down on sugar in their diets.
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