EFSA Reconfirms Aspartame Safety

PARMA, ItalyThe European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has rejected two soft drinks research papers that questioned the use of aspartame in beverages.

EFSA was asked to review two studies published last yeara carcinogenicity study in mice from the Ramazzini Institute (Soffritti et al., 2010) linking aspartame to lung and liver cancer, and a prospective cohort study linking artificially-sweetened soft drinks to premature birth (Halldorsson et al., 2010).

EFSA concluded that the results presented in Soffritti et al. (2010) do not provide a sufficient basis to reconsider the previous evaluations by EFSA on aspartame. For the Halldorsson et al. (2010) study,  EFSA concluded there is no evidence available to support a causal relationship between the consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks and preterm delivery and additional studies are required to reject or confirm an association.

EFSA concluded that the information available from the two studies was insufficient to reconsider the previous evaluations of aspartame or of other food additive sweeteners authorized in the European Union.