Common sweetener used in Diet Coke and chewing gum ‘to be listed as a cancer risk’

SWEETENERS used in Diet Coke are set to be labelled a potential cancer risk by the World Health Organization, according to reports.

Aspartame, which is also used in some chewing gum, will be designated as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the WHO’s cancer research arm, insiders say.

Its ruling, which aims to determine if something is a potential hazard or not, will come in next month, according to Reuters.

A spokesperson for the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, which will make the decision, said its findings will be confidential until July.

But they said it will be “the first fundamental step to understand carcinogenicity”.

Separate advice on how much is safe to consume will also be issued by a WHO expert committee on food additives known as JECFA.

Both decisions will be announced on July 14, sources say.

Businesses and regulators fear holding both processes at around the same time could be confusing, letters show.

Nozomi Tomita, of Japan‘s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, sent a letter to the WHO in March asking “bodies to coordinate their efforts in reviewing aspartame to avoid any confusion or concerns among the public”.

The letter also pleaded for the conclusions of both bodies to be released on the same day, as is now the case. 

The Japanese mission in Geneva, where the WHO is based, did not respond to a request for comment.

It comes after the WHO issued guidelines advising people not to drink sugar-free sweeteners to lose weight last month.

The chemicals may also increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the international agency said.

Aspartame has been ruled safe to consume within daily limits since 1981 by JECFA.

It has been studied for decades, with research last year showing people who consume larger amounts of sweeteners including aspartame were at a slightly higher risk of cancer.

Dr Duane Mellor, a nutritionist at Aston University in Birmingham, told The Sun: “There has been reports about aspartame in animals being linked to cancer, although some have criticised this work.

“It has been associated with increased risk of some cancers in population studies.

“This seems to be linked to the methanol — this also exists naturally in fruits — which is released when it is broken down, as the other two products of its breakdown are amino acids naturally found in meat, dairy and other sources of protein.

“For it to be classed as a possible carcinogen by IARC, it has to have sufficient evidence in experimental animals but not necessarily data in humans.”

Professor Lawrence Young, an oncologist at the University of Warwick, told The Sun: “The association of aspartame consumption with increased risk of cancer remains controversial.

“Many different studies have found no clear association or a very slight effect which is complicated by other underlying conditions such as diabetes.

“Like many of the risks associated with diet and disease, this provides a warning that we need to be cautious about over-consumption of artificial sweeteners as we do excess eating of processed meat and other types of junk food.”

Professor Tom Sanders, of King’s College London, said: “Aspartame has been in use as an intense sweetener for more than thirty years in the UK.

“There have been reports from the Ramazzini Institute claiming that rats fed very large amounts of aspartame developed more tumours. However, the fidelity of the data was questioned by the European Food Safety Authority.

“Other more recent animal studies in the USA have failed to show any evidence of carcinogenicity and the US Food and Drug Administration continues to maintain that aspartame is safe to use.”

Some experts have questioned the leaked rulings, insisting the sweetener is safe.

Dr John Sievenpiper, of the Department of Medicine at University of Toronto, said: “Aspartame has proven to be a safe tool to reduce calories and sugars in the diet and is one of the most extensively studied ingredients with over 40 years of high-quality science supporting its safety.

“The best available evidence from large population studies shows that low and no-calorie sweeteners as a replacement strategy for added sugars is associated with reductions in important public health outcomes such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and death.” 

Frances Hunt-Wood, of the International Sweeteners Association (ISA), said: “IARC is not a food safety body.

“The JECFA is currently conducting a comprehensive food safety review of aspartame and no conclusions can be drawn until both reports are published.

“Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly researched ingredients in history, with over 90 food safety agencies across the globe declaring it is safe, including the European Food Safety Authority, which conducted the most comprehensive safety evaluation of aspartame to date.”