First European conference on aspartame: Putting safety and benefits into perspective. Synopsis of presentations and conclusions

A Conference was held in Paris in 2006 to review the safety and benefits arising from the replacement of sucrose with the intense sweetener aspartame. The intakes of aspartame are only about 10% of the acceptable daily intake, even by high consumers, so that the safety margin is about 3 orders of magnitude. The safety of aspartame was confirmed in the EFSA Opinion of a recent controversial rodent cancer bioassay. There is increasing evidence that even modest reductions in the intake of calories can reduce the risk factors associated with a number of diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. A key issue addressed at the conference was whether the replacement of sucrose with aspartame could result in a prolonged decrease in calorie intake that was of similar magnitude to that necessary to produce a health benefit. A recent meta-analysis of published data showed that an adequate, prolonged weight reduction could be achieved with aspartame. It was recognised that risk assessment alone gave an unbalanced impression to regulators and consumers, and that in the future quantitative risk-benefit analyses should be able to provide more comprehensive advice.