May 9, 2006 -- FDA Looks at New Studies of Artificial Sweetener Aspartame

Responding to a European study that has found the low-calorie artificial sweetener aspartame—the ingredient of popular products such as NutraSweet —to be carcinogenic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said May 8 that it continues to believe aspartame is safe for human use. The agency said, however, that is reviewing data it has received on the European Food Safety Authority’s findings and will announce its conclusions when the review is complete. As of now, the FDA said in a press release, "the agency has not been presented with scientific information that would support a change in our conclusions about the safety of aspartame." Aspartame is the most popular of a class of sugar substitutes known as high-intensity sweeteners; the group includes saccharine and five other artificially derived sugar substitutes that have been approved by the FDA. Aspartame was reportedly discovered in 1965 by a scientist working on an anti-ulcer drug who accidentally spilled some aspartame on his hand and when licking his finger, noticed that it had a sweet taste. Since that time, there have been questions about its safety, but the FDA says its current approval of aspartame is based on more than 100 toxicological and clinical studies of the sweetener's safety.