Sweetener update: News on saccharin, aspartame, trehalose
Despite some consumer group protest, saccharin's warning labels are gone. Aspartame is in demand and a new sweetener, trehalose, will soon appear.
Contents
CSPI's concerns
Mainstream support for the label repeal
Other sweeteners: Aspartame, trehalose update
Trehalose recognized as safe
Not everyone is, or can be happy with any given law—even one as innocuous as the "SWEETEST" Act (H.R. 5668), also known as the Saccharin Warning Elimination via Environmental Testing Employing Science and Technology Act, part of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Appropriations Bill (H.R. 4577). On Dec. 21, 2000, U.S. President Clinton signed a piece of legislation to remove the warning label that had been required on saccharin-sweetened foods and beverages since 1977. The law was called the (See U.S. Congress removes saccharin warning label ).
The consumer group, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), voiced protest immediately upon the law's signing.
"My advice to consumers is to play it safe and continue to avoid saccharin," Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., executive director of CSPI said in a statement following the law's signing.
CSPI's concerns
"The food industry claims that the male rats' urinary bladders, in which saccharin causes cancer, are uniquely sensitive to saccharin. However, many other studies in both rats and mice show that saccharin causes cancer in other organs. Moreover, the single best epidemiological study, conducted by the National Cancer Institute, found an association between the consumption of artificial sweeteners and an increased risk of bladder cancer," Jacobson said.
Saccharin-sweetened foods and beverages have sported warning labels since 1977. But Congress approved legislation to remove the warning label as part of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill, which was singed by President Clinton signed Dec. 21, 2000.
According to Jacobson, "The only committee of non-governmental scientists — the National Toxicology Program's Board of Scientific Counselors — to review the data on saccharin concluded in 1997 by a vote of 4-3 that saccharin still should be considered a cancer-causing chemical. However, panels of government scientists ignored that Board's views and voted in split decisions that saccharin did not pose a cancer risk."
Mainstream support for the label repeal
Earlier in 2000, the federal government's National Toxicology Program (NTP) removed saccharin from its Ninth Report on Carcinogens. In doing so, NTP joined numerous other world health agencies in recognizing the safety of saccharin.
"Outdated and misleading" is how Lyn Nabors described the old warning labels. Nabors is executive VP of the Atlanta, GA-based Calorie Control Council, a trade group representing the low-calorie food industry. The Council noted that government, scientists and industry are now all in agreement on saccharin's safety.
"The case against saccharin rested on controversial high-dose rat experiments in which the animals were fed the human equivalent of hundreds of cans of diet soft drinks per day for a lifetime."
Other groups that reviewed the scientific research on saccharin and support its safety include the American Cancer Society, American Medical Association, American Dietetic Association and American Diabetes Association.
Other sweeteners: Aspartame, trehalose update
Americans' preference for convenience is helping spur growth in the food additive and preservative industry. New strategic research from Frost & Sullivan (www.frost.com), "U.S. Food Additive and Preservative Markets" shows the industry had more than $3 billion in revenue in 1999. Research group Frost & Sullivan projects revenues to top $5 billion by the year 2006. (See Aspartame popularity soaring ).
Trehalose recognized as safe
The U.S. Food and Administration (FDA) has granted GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status to the naturally occurring trehalose. Grain Processing Corp. and Kerry Ingredients are said to be pursuing a marketable version of the naturally occurring sweetener, but Cargill seems to have the edge.
Trehalose is a naturally occurring substance about 45% as sweet as sugar. It may have applications ranging from seasonings to beverages, baked goods and meat/poultry products, fresh or frozen.
Cargill and Hayashibara Co. Ltd. of Japan forged an agreement last year to jointly evaluate the trehalose market in the Americas to determine the feasibility of Cargill establishing a manufacturing and marketing business for the multi-functional sweetener. Cargill gained an exclusive distributorship to its partner's food grade trehalose throughout the Americas. (See our story from June, Cargill, Hayashibara to Introduce Trehalose Sweetener ).
Hayashibara claims to be uniquely able to scale-up a trehalose manufacturing process based on carbohydrate chemistry and enzyme technology methods, deriving the sweetener directly from starch (one of many sources) "at a fraction of the cost of existing methods," the company's R&D chief explained last summer.
Edited by Bob Sperber, Managing Editor, Bakery Online
With additional reporting by Lisa Van Wagner, Government Affairs Editor, and
Scott Hegenbart, Managing Editor, Food Ingredients Online