Petition to FDA for More Transparency of Artificial Sweeteners on Food Labels

September 21, 2020

“Sweeteners sound like the ideal solution to added sugar. No calories and none of the cons of refined sugar means you can enjoy it in excess right? The answer is, we don’t know yet.

As of now, there are 6 sugar substitutes approved by the FDA. These include-

• Aspartame
• Saccharin
• Sucralose
• Acesulfame potassium
• Neotame
• Advantame

Two more sweeteners are allowed to be used under FDA GRAS status. The public can only pinpoint these names out of a list of ingredients 37% of the time.

In just 4 years, the use of these additives has almost quadrupled across products. Of course, these substitutes would not have been approved if they weren’t deemed safe. Nonetheless, each substitute has its own safety limit documenting how much of the product an individual can safely consume. This is generally not an issue as so little of each is included in food.

However, these sweeteners do not have the same invisible effect on everyone. Individuals with the rare disease phenylketonuria (PKU) often have issues metabolizing phenylalanine which is included in aspartame. Additionally, excess use of these sweeteners for anyone could result in gastrointestinal issues. Further, there has not yet been research on any long-term effects of these substitutes in children. 73% of parents want to know the amount of these ingredients that are in their children’s foods. 66% want substitutes clearly identified on all food labels.”

Read the full article at: https://patientworthy.com/2020/09/21/petition-transparency-artificial-sweeteners-food-labels-phenylketonuria/