A WHO committee has assessed 1,300 studies on artificial sweeteners in its June review.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reacted to a news report that talks about artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame, and their link to possible increased cancer risk. Speaking to NDTV, WHO said that one of its key committees has assessed the potential carcinogenic effect of aspartame and "will update its risk assessment exercise". A Reuters report had said that WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will hold a meeting in July where popular sweetener aspartame will be listed as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" for the first time.
"IARC has assessed the potential carcinogenic effect of aspartame (hazard identification). Following this, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) will update its risk assessment exercise on aspartame, including the reviewing of the acceptable daily intake and dietary exposure assessment for aspartame," the UN health body told NDTV in a statement.
"The result of both evaluations will be made available together, on 14 July 2023," it further said. The meeting JECFA began at the end of June.
The IARC said it has assessed 1,300 studies in its June review.
Aspartame has no calories and is approximately 200 times sweeter than table sugar. In a 2009 document, India's food safety and regulation body FSSAI has recommended maximum permitted levels of the artificial sweetener according to the food product it is being used in.
About 95 per cent of carbonated soft drinks that have a sweetener use aspartame, as well as about 90 per cent of ready-to-drink teas, representing a huge amount of the beverage market share.
The chemical compound has also come under renewed scrutiny in the US under with Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as per Washington Post. The FDA had approved aspartame for human consumption in 1981, but has since reviewed its safety five times. More than 90 countries have approved its use.
The WHO response comes more than a month after it warned against the use of artificial sweeteners, saying they do not help in losing weight and can have serious health effects. It also released new guidelines advising against using so-called non-sugar sweeteners or NSS.