Expert Opinions – Acesulfame K

Scientists/Regulators/Health Groups Support Acesulfame Potassum’s Safety

About 90 scientific studies have thoroughly established the safety of acesulfame potassium (also known as acesulfame K), a non-caloric sweetener. In addition, some of the world’s leading scientific institutions and regulatory bodies have reviewed these studies and other test results and have confirmed the sweetener’s safety. The following are statements from some of these organizations:

• “The FDA first approved acesulfame-K in 1988, and it is currently approved as a general-purpose sweetener not including meat and poultry. … Thus, the consumption of acesulfame potassium, aspartame, saccharin, sucralose and neotame within acceptable daily intakes is safe during pregnancy.”
  — Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly American Dietetic Association), “Position of the American Dietetic Association: Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners,” 2004.
• “Acesulfame potassium has been thoroughly tested for safety and the data have been thoroughly reviewed by the agency. As discussed above, the agency has concluded that the studies conducted to establish the safety of this compound are adequate to demonstrate, to a reasonable certainty, the safety of acesulfame potassium for its intended uses.”
  — Food and Drug Administration, Federal Register Vol. 57, No. 39, Feb. 27, 1992
• “The committee was provided with extensive toxicological data including metabolic, long-term, reproduction and teratology studies. The long-term studies in rat and mouse did not show any dose-related increase in specific tumors nor any treatment-related pathological changes of significance.”
  — Commission of the European Communities, “Sweeteners.” Reports of the Scientific Committee for Foods No. 16, Luxembourg, 1985
• “More than 90 safety studies, including four long-term animal feeding studies, conducted over the last 15 years were submitted to the FDA. The FDA addressed the question of tumors found in some rats fed acesulfame K during one of the long-term studies. A detailed analysis of the tumors showed that they were typical of what could be routinely expected in rats and were not related to acesulfame K.”
  — American Dietetic Association, “Position of The American Dietetic Association: Use of nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners,” ADA Reports
• “[T]hese products undergo rigorous scrutiny from the FDA and are not allowed on the market unless they are safe for the public, including people with diabetes, to consume.”
  — Technical Review, Vol. 17, Number 5, May 1994, Diabetes Care
• “There are currently six low-calorie sweeteners approved for use in the United States alone. All have been carefully reviewed and deemed safe by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and numerous other regulatory and expert committees around the world, including the Joint Expert Commission on Food Additives of the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization (JECFA).” O’Brien-Nabors, Lyn. Alternative Sweeteners. 4th ed.
• “Substituting non-nutritive sweeteners for sugars added to foods and beverages may help people reach and maintain a healthy body weight – as long as the substitution doesn’t lead to eating additional calories later as compensation. For people with diabetes, non-nutritive sweeteners used alone or in foods and beverages remain an option and when used appropriately can aid in glucose control.”— American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association, “Nonnutritive Sweeteners: Current Use and Health Perspectives,” 2012.