EU food safety agency to test aspartame

Dutch MEP Kartika Liotard (European United Left/Nordic Green Left), who has called into question the safety of aspartame since 2005, welcomed news of the re-assessment.

Her group considers it outrageous that so much political pressure was required before EFSA and the European Commission finally decided to move on the topic.

"The Authority just ignored the findings of the investigations in February saying they were 'unreliable'. That amounts to playing with public health. Even the smallest clue that aspartame could cause cancer or miscarriages should be a reason for an assessment to be seriously considered. Now, they have finally succumbed after years of pressure from the European Parliament. This indicates that EFSA and the Commission's data on the safety of aspartame is not 100% certain," said Liotard.

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group MEPs Corinne Lepage (France) and Antonyia Parvanova (Bulgaria) said that the Commission had apparently finally taken into account their repeated requests for a complete review of the aspartame safety profile, asking EFSA to conduct one before July 2012.

"This is good news but in the meantime we repeat our call for public information on the uncertainties concerning health implications to be available, and for pregnant women to be informed about suspected risks for the foetus, as voted in the environment committee," the ALDE MEPs said.

"We should denounce how careless the EFSA and the Commission have been handling this case until now; recent exchanges of letter between NGOs and the EFSA seem to indicate that the EFSA never took the time to look at the original evaluation, and that data have even been lost!," they added.

EU food and drink industry confederation CIAA stressed earlier this spring in a public hearing on aspartame that the food and drink industry was committed to providing consumers with choice.

Moreover, authorisation of the sweetener had enabled the EU food and drink industry to innovate, responding to consumer demands and increasing consumer choice, offering safe "energy reduced" or "without added sugar" food and drink products in addition to their traditional counterparts, the CIAA said.

The confederation also noted that aspartame's presence is labelled twice, if not three times, on all food and drink products in which it is used. "This provides consumers with the information necessary to make informed choices," it said.