WHO cancer arm deems aspartame ‘possible carcinogen’; consumption limits unchanged

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WHO cancer arm deems aspartame ‘possible carcinogen’; consumption limits unchanged

12:17 CAT | 19 Jul 2023

FILE - Aspartame is one of the world’s most popular sweeteners, used in products from Coca-Cola diet sodas to Mars’ Extra chewing gum. [File photo: Reuters]

The sweetener aspartame is a “possible carcinogen” but it remains safe to consume at already agreed levels, two groups linked to the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared on Friday.

The rulings are from two separate WHO expert panels, one of which flags whether there is any evidence that a substance is a potential hazard, and the other which assesses how much of a real-life risk that substance actually poses.

Aspartame is one of the world’s most popular sweeteners, used in products from Coca-Cola diet soft drinks to Mars’ Extra chewing gum.

In a press conference ahead of the announcement, the WHO’s head of nutrition, Dr Francesco Branca, tried to help consumers make sense of the seemingly conflicting declarations, especially those who seek out artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar.

“If consumers are faced with the decision of whether to take cola with sweeteners or one with sugar, I think there should be a third option considered – which is to drink water instead,” Dr Branca said.

In its first declaration on the additive, announced early on Friday, the Lyon-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said aspartame was a “possible carcinogen”.

This classification means there is limited evidence that a substance can cause cancer.

It does not take into account how much a person would need to consume to be at risk, which is considered by a separate panel based in Geneva, the Joint Food and Agriculture Organisation/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).

After undertaking its own comprehensive review, JECFA said on Friday that it did not have convincing evidence of harm caused by aspartame, and continued to recommend that people keep their consumption levels of aspartame below 40mg per kg a day.

JECFA first set this level in 1981, and regulators worldwide have similar guidance for their populations.

Food and beverage industry associations said the decisions showed aspartame was safe and a good option for people wanting to reduce sugar in their diets.

The WHO said that the existing consumption levels meant, for example, a person weighing between 60kg and 70kg would have to drink more than nine to 14 cans of soda daily to breach the limit, based on the average aspartame content in the beverages – around 10 times what most people consume.

“Our results do not indicate that occasional consumption could pose a risk to most consumers,” said Dr Branca.

Limited evidence

Reuters first reported in June that the IARC would put aspartame in Group 2B classification as a “possible carcinogen” alongside aloe vera extract and traditional Asian pickled vegetables.

The IARC panel said on Friday it had made its ruling based on three studies in humans in the United States and Europe that indicated a link between hepatocellular carcinoma, a form of liver cancer, and sweetener consumption, the first of which was published in 2016.

It said limited evidence from earlier animal studies was also a factor, although the studies in question are controversial. There was also some limited evidence that aspartame has some chemical properties that are linked to cancer, the IARC said.

“In our view, this is really more a call to the research community to try to better clarify and understand the carcinogenic hazard that may or may not be posed by aspartame consumption,” said Dr Mary Schubauer-Berigan from the IARC.

A chemical-based sweetener that is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, aspartame is packaged and sold under names such as Equal.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aspartame in certain products in 1974, issuing a safety finding in 1981 and approving it as a general-purpose sweetener in 1996.

“Aspartame being labelled by IARC as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ does not mean that aspartame is actually linked to cancer,” the FDA said in a statement.

“The FDA disagrees with IARC’s conclusion that these studies support classifying aspartame as a possible carcinogen to humans.”

Scientists with no links to the WHO reviews said the evidence that aspartame caused cancer was weak.

“Group 2B is a very conservative classification in that almost any evidence of carcinogenicity, however flawed, will put a chemical in that category or above,” said cancer epidemiology professor Paul Pharoah from Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles.

He said JECFA had concluded there was no “convincing evidence” of harm.

“The public should not be worried about the risk of cancer associated with a chemical classed as Group 2B by IARC,” Prof Pharaoh said.

Dr Nigel Brockton, vice-president of research at the American Institute for Cancer Research, said he anticipated that research into aspartame would take the form of large, observational studies that account for any intake of aspartame.

Some doctors expressed concern that the classification of “possible carcinogen” might sway consumers of diet soft drinks to switch to caloric sugar beverages.

Dr Therese Bevers, medical director of the Cancer Prevention Centre at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, said “the possibility of weight gain and obesity is a much bigger problem and bigger risk factor than aspartame could ever be”.

The WHO conclusion “once again affirms that aspartame is safe”, said Ms Kate Loatman, executive director of the International Council of Beverage Associations.

Ms Frances Hunt-Wood, secretary-general of the International Sweeteners Association, said: “Aspartame, like all low/no-calorie sweeteners, when used as part of a balanced diet, provides consumers with choice to reduce sugar intake, a critical public health objective.”

Source: Reuters / Bloomberg