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Available for over 30 years, aspartame is approved for use in more than 100 countries around the world. Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly tested food additives in history with a comprehensive body of studies done in humans and animals. All of these studies demonstrate that aspartame is safe for human consumption.
Safety authorities have regularly reviewed new studies and they have always reconfirmed aspartame's safety. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reconfirmed the safety of aspartame in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
What is aspartame and why is it used?
Aspartame is a low calorie sweetener. Aspartame provides 4 calories per gram but because, weight for weight, it is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar, very little aspartame is needed to sweeten foods. Aspartame therefore adds practically no calories to foods. Aspartame mimics well the taste of sugar, enhances citrus and other fruit flavours, and does not contribute to tooth decay.
In which products is it used?
Aspartame is authorized for use as a sweetener in a wide range of foods. It is used to sweeten around 6,000 foods and beverages, including sparkling soft drinks, desserts, sweets, chewing gum, yogurt, and table-top sweeteners.
What happens to aspartame in the body once it is ingested?
Aspartame breaks down in the gut into its three constituent parts: two amino acids - aspartic acid and phenylalanine - and methanol, which are then absorbed into the blood.
The two amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine) are building blocks of protein and are found naturally in many everyday foods such as meat, fish, cheese, eggs and milk. Methanol is also found naturally in many foods, such as fruits and vegetables and their juices, and is part of the normal diet.
These components are used in the body in exactly the same ways as when they are derived, in much greater amounts, from common foods and beverage. For example, milk provides about 5 times more phenylalanine and 11 times more aspartic acid than a beverage sweetened with aspartame; tomato juice provides over 3 times the amount of methanol as an aspartame-sweetened beverage. Neither aspartame nor its components can accumulate in the body.
How can I tell if a product contains aspartame?
People can identify foods and drinks containing aspartame by looking at the ingredients lists on product labelling. Like all food additives approved for use in the European Union, aspartame has been assigned an "E-number". Its presence in foods is indicated either by its name (i.e., "aspartame") or by its number (E-951).
Products containing aspartame should also state that it is a source of phenylalanine. This label is there to help people with a rare inherited genetic disorder called phenylketonuria (PKU). These people cannot metabolise phenylalanine from any source and need to control their intake of this amino acid.
How has aspartame's safety been tested?
Aspartame was extensively tested prior to its approval. This research included four animal carcinogenicity (ability to cause cancer) studies. These studies, together with studies on genotoxicity (ability to damage the genetic material, but not necessarily causing cancer), were evaluated by regulatory bodies worldwide and it was concluded that they did not show any evidence of genotoxic or carcinogenic potential for aspartame.
The full body of science on aspartame has been reviewed by regulatory authorities around the world, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation. In every case, aspartame was found to be safe.
Questions regarding the safety of aspartame have been raised since its approval, with discussions focusing not only on the safety of aspartame itself, but also on the safety of its breakdown products (aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol). Post-marketing surveillance and numerous additional animal and human studies have been conducted. All have confirmed that aspartame is safe and has no adverse health effects.
How was aspartame approved in the European Union?
Aspartame was first authorised for use by individual Member States in the 1980s. European legislation harmonising the use of low calorie sweeteners in foodstuffs was introduced in 1994, following thorough safety evaluations by the European Commission Scientific Committee for Food (SCF).
Further reviews of the data on aspartame were carried out in 1988 and 2002 by the SCF. Both published and unpublished data, including all the information on genotoxicity and carcinogenicity in animals and humans, were considered. The SCF reconfirmed the safety of aspartame. Today, the  European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for the work previously carried out by the SCF.
How much aspartame can be safely consumed? What is the Acceptable Daily Intake?
The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of aspartame in the European Union is 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. The ADI refers to the amount of aspartame that can be consumed daily in the diet, over a lifetime, without any health problems. For an adult weighing 70 kilograms, the ADI for aspartame has the sweetness equivalent of over half a kilo of sugar.
Additionally, the ADI provides a large margin of safety. Authorities determine a level of an additive that has no toxic effect in animal models, apply a safety factor of 100 (to account for the difference between animals and humans and the different sensitivities between humans), and then calculate the Acceptable Daily Intake.
Furthermore, aspartame consumption has been measured in many countries and has been found to be far lower than the ADI, even in people on weight-reduction diets, in diabetics or in children. In a recent EFSA evaluation, intake of low calorie sweeteners was assessed in a number of European countries. Intake of aspartame was less than a quarter of the ADI, even among frequent consumers.
Why did the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) carry out its recent reviews of aspartame safety?
In 2005, the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences (ERF) published a study on the carcinogenicity of aspartame carried out in rats. EFSA's scientific panel found that the Ramazzini study had several flaws which brought into question the validity of the results. EFSA concluded that aspartame remains safe for human consumption and that there was no reason to revise the previously established ADI for aspartame, or to advise consumers to modify their dietary habits.

In April 2007, the ERF announced a second rat study on aspartame.  This material was also reviewed by EFSA, who again concluded that there was no reason to change its opinion.  In 2010, ERF published a paper based on a mouse study on aspartame.  In February 2011, EFSA announced its conclusion that the validity of this study could not be assessed and its results could not be interpreted.

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