Title: Alternative Sweeteners

298 Mesters et al.
Figure 1 The chemical structure of lactitol.
cose and hydrogenation to the corresponding sugar alcohols lactitol, lactulitol,
sorbitol, and galactitol (dulcitol) (5).
III. TOXICOLOGY
All the required studies for a food additive have been carried out (CIVO-TNO,
The Netherlands). There are no deleterious effects of feeding lactitol at levels
up to 10% of the diet. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee of Food Additives
(JECFA) approved lactitol in April 1983. The Committee allocated an acceptable
daily intake (ADI) ‘‘not specified’’ to lactitol (6).
The Scientific Committee on Food of the EC (SCF-EC) evaluated lactitol
and considered it to be a safe product; they stated that ‘‘consumption of the order
of 20 g per person per day of polyols is unlikely to cause undesirable laxative
symptoms’’ (7). The same was stated for isomalt, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol,
and xylitol.
Safety studies in experimental animals included long-term feeding studies
at high dietary levels for 2 1 /2 years in rats and for 2 years in mice. The safety
data are not summarized here. Full data are described in CIVO-TNO (Zeist, The
Netherlands) reports, which are published in the Journal of the American College
of Toxicology (7a). These reports have been evaluated by JECFA, SCF-EC, and
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
IV. USE AND PURPOSE OF LACTITOL BASED
ON BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
Lactitol is a sweet-tasting sugar alcohol with interesting nutritional, physiological,
and pharmaceutical properties. Lactitol is neither hydrolyzed nor absorbed