Aspartame

Aspartame is a non-caloric sweetener discovered in 1965 by the pharmaceutical multinational G. D. Searle and Company.

In 1985 the Monsanto company bought G. D. Searle and marketed aspartame through the NutraSweet company. In March 2000 Monsanto sold NutraSweet to J. W. Childs Equity Partners II LP. The European patent expired in 1987 and the US patent expired in 1992. Since then, the company has competed for market share with other manufacturers such as Ajinomoto, Merisant and the Holland Sweetener Company. Aspartame is used in numerous foods around the world and is marketed under various brand names such as Natreen and Canderel, as well as NutraSweet, and corresponds to the code E 951 in Europe.

Aspartame is 150 to 200 times sweeter than sugar. All sweeteners are ranked relative to sucrose or regular sugar, so the 200-fold value is obtained by comparing it to 15% laboratory dilutions of sucrose (relative sweetness = 100).

Discovery

Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter. He was working on a drug against ulcers, and accidentally spilled some aspartame on his hand. When he licked his finger, he realized that it tasted sweet. It is a white, crystalline, odorless powder that is derived from two amino acids: aspartic acid and phenylalanine. It is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar and can be used as a tabletop sweetener or in frozen desserts, jellies, beverages, and chewing gum. Its chemical name is L-alpha-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester and its chemical formula is C14H18N2O5. Although it doesn't have the bitter taste that saccharin leaves, the drawback is that it might not taste exactly like sugar because it reacts with other flavors in food. When consumed, aspartame is metabolized to its original amino acids and has a low energy content.

Health Effects

Aspartame has been declared safe for human consumption by agencies in more than ninety countries and the FDA describes it as one of the most studied additives in history and states that its safety is more than confirmed. More than 100 national and international organizations have evaluated the safety of aspartame. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee has set an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) level of 40 mg/kg body weight, while the FDA sets it. at 50 mg/kg. There is, however, controversy among certain sectors, among which numerous controversies and hoaxes have arisen around it.

Some studies have reported that massive consumption of aspartame increases sensitivity to drugs that induce epilepsy in mice.

In 2005, Morando Soffritti, from the Ramazzini Foundation, reignited the controversy over the dangers of aspartame. After a study with 1,800 rats over eight years, the team of researchers he led in the Italian city of Bologna concluded that aspartame could have carcinogenic effects. The Ramazzini Foundation studies were evaluated by the European Authority for Food Safety (EFSA) and the FDA and were dismissed for their numerous methodological errors, maintaining that aspartame is safe for human consumption. Their report estimated the theoretical maximum intake of aspartame in adults at 21.3 mg/kg of body weight per day. These values are once again subject to revision by the same Commission (2012), since all food additives are periodically reviewed.

Again in 2010, Soffritti and Halldorsson published two papers concluding that aspartame was a carcinogenic agent. EFSA re-evaluated this research, concluding that there is no causal relationship between aspartame and cancer (it further alleges that the experimental design was deficient). He ruled out reconsidering the evaluations of sweeteners that have already been declared safe and therefore authorized in the European Union; On this occasion, the studies that show the danger of aspartame were not taken into account either, as they lack scientific rigor.

In June 2011, the Ramazzini Institute issued a statement on its website informing that, due to the results obtained in their research, some Institute scientists were received by several European parliamentarians. As a result of this, parliamentarians have managed to get the European Commission to request EFSA to start a new reassessment process for this compound in 2012.

In December 2013, EFSA published a report stating that the current Acceptable Daily Intake for aspartame of 40 mg/kg per day needs no revision as it is considered safe for the general population (including babies, children and pregnant women). The experts concluded that aspartame does not harm the brain, the nervous system, or affect behavior or cognitive function in children or adults, and ruled out that it causes cancer or gene damage.

Food

The main sources of exposure to aspartame are sweet drinks, chewing gum, pharmaceutical products, fruit drinks and light yogurts, among others.