If artificial sweeteners have an image problem, then General Mills’ move to replace one artificial sweetener (aspartame) with another (sucralose) in its Yoplait Light yogurts might seem like an odd move.
The number of new food and beverage products containing aspartame has continued to fall since 2005, indicates data from Mintel, while the number of those using sucralose has risen.
Ajinomoto Sweeteners Europe has launched a defamation law suit
against US supermarket Asda over labelling on own-brand products
that calls aspartame a 'nasty'.
The publication of a new animal study on aspartame last month has -
as expected -sparked yet another bout of head butting from the two
opposing sides of the debate. But it also highlights a bigger
issue: one of transparency.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reaffirmed its
position on the safety of aspartame, following a review of a
European study that had linked the artificial sweetener to cancer.
An Indian pharmaceutical firm has completed a new sucralose
facility and is ready to begin production of the popular sweetener,
using what it claims to be a non patent-infringing process.
A new sweetener supplier in the US claims to allow food and
beverage firms to access ingredient supplies from low-cost
manufacturing countries while maintaining Western standards of
quality and service.
The EU's food safety agency today said aspartame is safe for
consumption, contradicting a scientific study by the Ramazzini
Foundation that claimed the artificial sweetener caused cancer.
Food processors are waiting with bated breath for the release next
week of an EU regulatory review either confirming or rejecting the
results of a scientific study claiming that aspartame poses a
cancer risk.
EU processors will have to wait longer to find out if they can
continue to use aspartame, after the EU's food safety regulator
said it had still not received evidence from an Italian research
centre indicating that the artificial...
Reports from a fresh Italian study alleging aspartame could pose a
cancer risk are not in harmony with the extensive research that
exist on aspartame, say suppliers of this popular sweetener.
Food makers opt for the latest darling of the sweetener industry,
sucralose, for their new products with fresh data showing this
sweetener gained ground over aspartame and Acesulfame K in new
launches using sweeteners, for the first...
An editorial in the British Medical Journal this month that
concludes criticisms of aspartame are 'unfounded' adds fuel to the
ongoing debate surrounding this popular sweetener used widely in
food and beverage applications.
