The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The cancer research division of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to declare one of the world’s most widely used artificial sweeteners, aspartame, as “possibly carcinogenic”, Reuters has reported.
It will declare its findings next month, the report added.
Aspartame, used in products from Coca-Cola diet sodas to Mars’ Extra chewing gum and some Snapple drinks, will be listed in July as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” for the first time by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), WHO’s cancer research arm, the sources told Reuters.
Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s decision is confidential until July 14, sources told Reuters that it has finished its assessment of the aspartame sweetener as possibly causing cancer as of late June.
Aspartame is a type of artificial sweetener that is 180 times sweeter than table sugar and is used in common products such as ice cream, diet cold drinks, and chewing gum.
These are also known as non-nutritive sweeteners or ‘sugar substitutes’.
While they taste sweet, artificial sweeteners provide little to no energy to the body.
IARC’s ruling will serve only as a “first fundamental step to understand [aspartame’s] carcinogenicity”.
Recommendations on how much of the sweetener someone can safely consume will be issued by a different WHO body named the Joint WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization’s Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), said the report.
JECFA is the WHO committee on additives.
It will also announce its decision on July 14, although it has maintained since 1981 that aspartame is safe to consume within accepted daily limits.
Also read: Too Much Sugar Is a Problem. Non-Nutritive Sweeteners Are Not the Solution.
Still, the sweetener’s anticipated “possibly carcinogenic” status has resulted in a pushback from industry and regulatory players.
“IARC is not a food safety body and their review of aspartame is not scientifically comprehensive and is based heavily on widely discredited research,” Frances Hunt-Wood, secretary general of the International Sweeteners Association, told Reuters.
Last month, the WHO had warned against the use of artificial sweeteners, saying that their long-term use could potentially result in increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality in adults.