July 14th 2023.
Diet Coke is one of thousands of products containing aspartame, an artificial sweetener used for decades in a variety of food and drink products. Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified the sweetener as 'possibly carcinogenic to humans'.
The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a report late Thursday that showed aspartame could be linked to cancer. However, the report stresses that the chances of this occurring are only when consumed in excessive amounts.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation's Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives found that a person would need to drink more than nine to fourteen cans of diet soft drink per day to exceed the daily intake guideline.
Dr Francesco Branca, director of the WHO's department of nutrition and food safety, said: “Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. Science is continuously expanding to assess the possible initiating or facilitating factors of cancer, in the hope of reducing these numbers and the human toll.
“The assessments of aspartame have indicated that, while safety is not a major concern at the doses which are commonly used, potential effects have been described that need to be investigated by more and better studies. We’re not advising consumers to stop consuming [aspartame] altogether. We’re just advising a bit of moderation.”
Harriet Burt, senior policy and international projects officer for World Action on Salt, Sugar & Health, based at Queen Mary University of London, said: “This new report from the WHO shows that companies need to reduce the overall sweetness of their products rather than relying so much on sweeteners. When done correctly, reformulation can gradually remove excess sugars, salt and saturated fat from foods to improve their overall healthiness without the need for replacement ingredients such as non-sugar sweeteners.”
Ms Burt further stressed the need for a comprehensive strategy by the UK government to reduce the overall product sweetness, including the use of non-sugar sweeteners like aspartame.
The Agency has contacted Coca-Cola for comment.
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