Artificial Sweeteners

Some people regard artificial sweeteners as the way to avoid the health problems associated with caloric sweeteners such as sugar and HFCS. These synthetic foods add no calories or virtually no calories to a person's diet. As of late 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved five artificial sweeteners for use in the United States. They are saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, ace-sulfame potassium, (abbreviated as acesulfame-K), and neotame. A sixth artificial sweetener, tagatose, was confirmed in 2001 as a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) chemical. Tagatose is derived from lactose and is present in small amounts in dairy products and other natural sources. Two other products are currently under FDA review, alitame and cyclamates. Cyclamates were once FDA approved, but approval was withdrawn in 1970.

Decisions about the use of artificial sweeteners vary from nation to nation. For example, alitame is currently approved for use in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and China. Some artificial sweeteners approved for use in foreign countries, but not the United States, include dihydrochalcones (European Union and Zimbabwe) and thau-matin (Israel, Japan, European Union, Australia, and New Zealand).

Artificial sweeteners tend to taste much sweeter than do natural sugars. The chart on page 62 shows the relative sweetness of various sugar substitutes. Relative sweetness is measured by comparing the taste of a 4 percent water solution of the substance compared to a sucrose solution of comparable concentration.

SACCHARIN

Saccharin was the first artificial sweetener to be discovered. It was identified in 1879 when Johns Hopkins researchers Constantine

< RELATIVE SWEETNESS OF VARIOUS ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS V
ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER	RELATIVE SWEETNESS
sucrose	1.0*
tagatose	1.0**
cyclamates	30*
HFCS	100-160***
aspartame	180*
acesulfame K	200*
saccharin	300-500*
sucralose	600*
hernandulcin	1,000*
alitame	2,000**
thaumatin	3,000*
Neotame	7,000-13,000**
Sources: Ben Selinger. Chemistry in the Marketplace, 4th ed. Sydney: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989, Table 11.5, page 428. CalorieControl.org. "Low-Calorie Sweeteners." Available online. URL: caloriecontrol.org/lowcal.html. Downloaded September 10, 2006. **Food Resource. "Sugar Sweetness." Oregon State University. Available online. URL: food.oregonstate.edu/sugar/sweet.html. Downloaded September 10, 2006.

Fahlberg and Ira Remsen were developing new food preservatives. It is said that Fahlberg accidentally spilled one of the substances being studied onto his hand. Some time later, he noticed that the substance tasted sweet and began to consider marketing the product as an artificial sweetener. Fahlberg and Remsen jointly published a paper describing their work, but Fahlberg went on to request a patent for the discovery without Remsen's knowledge. He eventually became very wealthy from proceeds of the discovery, none of which he shared with Remsen. (Remsen was later quoted as saying, "Fahlberg is a scoundrel. It nauseates me to hear my name mentioned in the same breath with him.") The product was first manufactured by the chemical company Monsanto and was the company's first commercial product. Two years after its founding in 1901, Monsanto was shipping all of the saccharin it produced to the Coca-Cola Company for use in its soft drinks.

Saccharin belongs to the chemical family known as the sulfimides. Its systematic name is o-benzosulfimide, or benzoylsulfonic imide. It is a white crystalline solid that is usually sold in the form of its sodium salt under the name Sweet'N Low or Sugar Twin. Saccharin's structural formula is shown below.

Controversy has surrounded saccharin throughout its existence. As early as 1907, one government food safety official tried to ban the substance from food. President Theodore Roosevelt branded that official "an idiot," however, and the product remained on the market.

Saccharin

Chemical structure of saccharin

Four years later, a group of federal scientists decided that saccharin was an "adulterant" whose use was to be controlled by the government. Its use was then restricted to food products designed for use by invalids.

Restrictions on saccharin's use in foods were briefly lifted during World War I. Sugar was in short supply during the war, and the government decided to allow food processors to use saccharin in its place. After the war, saccharin use began to drop as supplies of natural sugar became more readily available. In 1958, Congress passed the Food Additives Amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the act that included the Delaney Clause), which directed the FDA to categorize known food additives. The FDA listed saccharin as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), precluding further governmental regulation on its use.

Saccharin underwent its most serious testing challenges in the 1970s. During that decade, the FDA began an examination of many substances listed as GRAS. One group of studies suggested that saccharin was not entirely safe and may even cause bladder cancer in experimental animals (rats). Although those carcinogenic effects were later blamed on impurities in the saccharin used in the studies, the compound remained on the FDA's list of regulated additives throughout the decade.

An especially damaging study was reported in 1977 by Canadian researchers led by D. L. Arnold. Like the FDA researchers, the Canadian team also reported elevated levels of bladder cancer in rats fed saccharin; it also confirmed that the result could be obtained with saccharin free of impurities. That year Congress passed a law banning the use of saccharin in foods except for special circumstances (such as prescription products for diabetics). That "temporary" ban lasted for 14 years. In 1991 the FDA withdrew its plans to ban saccharin, and over the next decade the product regained its place among legitimate and safe artificial sweeteners. In 2000, the National Toxicology Program removed saccharin from its 9th Edition of the Report on Carcinogens, and President Bill Clinton signed a bill authorizing the removal of any warning messages on saccharin products.