Title: Alternative Sweeteners

Aspartame 45
A wide range exists over which aspartame sweetness levels are acceptable.
The loss of aspartame because of certain combinations of pH, moisture, and temperature
can lead to a gradual loss of perceived sweetness, with no development
of off-flavors, because conversion products of aspartame are tasteless (10, 11).
Blends or combinations of sweeteners are often used to achieve the desired
level of sweetness in food and beverage products that traditionally have been
sweetened with single sweeteners. Aspartame works well in admixture with other
sweeteners, including sugar. The flavor-enhancement quality of aspartame masks
bitter flavors even at subsweetening levels and makes aspartame a desirable
choice in blends with those sweeteners that possess potentially undesirable or
more complex taste profiles.
V. THE ESTABLISHED SAFETY OF ASPARTAME
AND ITS COMPONENTS
Aspartame has been proven to be a remarkably safe sweetener, with more than
200 scientific studies in animals and humans confirming its safety. Vigilant postmarketing
surveillance of anecdotal complaints from consumers revealed no consistent
pattern of symptoms related to consumption of aspartame, and an extensive
postmarketing research program to evaluate these allegations in controlled,
scientific studies further confirmed that aspartame is not associated with adverse
health effects.
A. Acceptable Daily Intake vs. Actual Intake
On the basis of the results of the comprehensive safety studies in animals (17,
18), an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of 40 mg/kg/day for aspartame was set
by JECFA (3). On the basis of both animal and human data, the US FDA set an
ADI for aspartame of 50 mg/kg body weight/day (19).
The ADI represents the amount of a food additive that can be consumed
daily for a lifetime with no ill effect (20–22). It is not a maximum amount that
can be safely consumed on a given day. A person may occasionally consume a
food additive in quantities exceeding the ADI without adverse effects. Aspartame
is about 200 times sweeter than sugar, so an ADI of 50 mg/kg body weight is
the sweetness equivalent of approximately 600 g (1.3 pounds) of sucrose consumed
daily by a 60-kg person over a lifetime. If aspartame replaced all the
sucrose in our diet, consumption would be well below the ADI at approximately
8.3 mg/kg/day (5).
Actual consumption levels of aspartame were monitored from 1984 to 1992
through dietary surveys in the United States (23–26). Average daily aspartame
consumption at the 90th percentile (‘‘eaters’’ only) in the general population