Title: Alternative Sweeteners

Cyclamate 71
States, and therefore it may not be used in foods or beverages in this country at
present. It is, however, legal to manufacture cyclamate-containing foods in the
United States for export to foreign countries, where the use of cyclamate as a
sweetener is permitted. This must, however, be done in compliance with Section
801(d) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 21 USC 381(d).
IX. SHELF-LIFE
Samples of tablets containing a cyclamate and saccharin mixture, which were
manufactured in 1969 or before, did not show any diminution in sweetening
ability or any physical deterioration after at least 7 years (12). It would seem,
therefore, that cyclamate in tablet form has an extremely long shelf-life. Information
about the possible shelf-life of cyclamate in other applications, such as soft
drinks or canned foods, was not available to the authors. However, when cyclamate
was widely used in the United States, the shelf-life was more than adequate
to allow the products to be sold in the ordinary course of business. There is no
known instance of a recall of products because of the degradation of the sweetening
content from cyclamate. The cyclamate stability data indicate that an expiration
date is not needed to ensure the identity, strength, quality, and purity of
either the bulk food additive or foods and beverages containing cyclamate.
X. TRANSPORT
No known problem exists with the transport of the bulk material, and in the
United States cyclamate is nonregulated with respect to transport.
XI. GENERAL COST/ECONOMICS
It is anticipated that should the Food and Drug Administration once again allow
the use of cyclamate as a food additive in the United States, the price would be
approximately $2.00 per pound, estimated at today’s production costs. The price
from foreign producers has varied considerably from year to year, depending
largely on product availability. As the price of sugar also fluctuates considerably,
the only means of determining the economics of cyclamate use is to compare its
cost at the time of production to the cost of equivalent sweetening from sugar
at its prevailing price. Such comparisons generally indicate that cyclamate is one
of the most economical noncaloric sweeteners.