Aspartame: Can we finally hope for EU overdue action on the controversial additive?
- Additives
This September, a long-awaited scientific opinion from EFSA could be an important turning point for the sweetener’s fate. Find out what's at stake, and why your signature still matters.
The public response to the joint petition launched in February 2025 by foodwatch, Yuka, and La Ligue Contre le Cancer asking for an EU-wide ban of the popular sweetener aspartame (which you can also spot under the code E 951 on food labels) has been incredible.
At the time of writing, over 400,000 people across Europe have asked the European Commission to act. While the political response has been disappointing so far, there might be hopeful opportunities on the horizon. Let us explain.
Aspartame has been under scrutiny for years, with a growing body of evidence pointing to possible links between the sweetener and serious health effects — from certain cancers to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Despite this, regulators have continued to allow it at relatively high doses, based largely on decade-old, industry-backed data. That's why we're calling for an EU-wide ban. Now, a new development at EU level could finally move things forward.
No to aspartame in our food and drinks!
Whether it’s soft drinks, desserts, chewing gum, or yoghurts — the use of the additive aspartame is everywhere. The WHO has classified this widely used sweetener as possibly cancer-causing.Now, we’re calling on the EU Commission President/Vice-President and the responsible Ministers to ban aspartame!
In July this year, a meeting of the scientific panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in charge of food additives took place. The scientific opinion on the salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962), a mixture of the two additives, was on the agenda and was apparently agreed on (see point 9.1 in the public minutes). This opinion about the reassessment of the safety of the additives has been expected for a long time and was apparently finally agreed on.
Why is this relevant for our campaign on aspartame you may ask? Because, due to the scarcity of data about E 962 (almost not used anymore by industry nowadays), experts have had to rely on data about the two sweeteners composing it, including aspartame. Since the last assessment of aspartame is more than a decade old, the agency therefore committed to look into the updated scientific literature about the compound as part of this initiative.
Aspartame's safety assessment is more than a decade old and relies on outdated and industry-backed data. This EFSA opinion is a real opportunity to finally update the state of the scientific knowledge about its potential health harms and change course — and we'll be watching closely.Lead Campaign Strategy
In a letter to foodwatch, Yuka and La Ligue contre le Cancer from March 2025, which is available on our website, the European Commission wrote that:
As part of the re-evaluation of the salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962), EFSA will carefully consider all relevant new studies on aspartame that have become available since the last risk assessment for aspartame conducted in 2013.
(...)
The Commission will take, if needed, appropriate risk management measures on aspartame (E 951) based on the updated EFSA safety re-evaluation once it is available, keeping health and safety as its main guiding principles.
According to EFSA, the full opinion will be published during the month of September (the exact date is still unknown) and could therefore be a turning point for the fate of aspartame because the Authority might make new recommendations on acceptable levels of exposure, which might trigger further regulatory actions from the European Commission.
You can trust that we will closely monitor those developments. Stay tuned and keep signing and sharing the petition in the meantime, as the campaign continues!
Remind me: what’s wrong with aspartame?
Aspartame is a popular sugar substitute that is currently found in about 2,500 products in Europe and an estimated 6,000 products worldwide. It is particularly used in sodas, chewing gums or dairy products.
Still, regulators continue to consider aspartame safe for human consumption up to a relatively high dose (the acceptable daily intake was set by EFSA mostly based on industry data at 40 mg/kg of bw per day is equivalent to 9 to 14 cans of diet soda containing 200-300 mg of aspartame for an adult of 70 kg excluding exposure via other sources).
The last official reassessment of the substance dates back to 2013 and was tainted with significant public controversy due to the heavy reliance on industry-commissioned studies (confirming safety) at the expense of independent peer-reviewed scientific evidence (pointing to potential concerns for public health).
In 2023, the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer classified aspartame as a possible carcinogen for humans, based on public data looking strictly at the intrinsic properties of the substance. At the same time, the FAO-WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) issued another opinion reaffirming the sweetener’s safety at the doses currently recommended by EFSA. Here you can find out more about the reasons why foodwatch was not convinced by the JECFA opinion.
Here we documented some of the most interesting studies that were released during the year 2025, pointing among others at increased risks of delayed puberty, type 2 diabetes, ischemic strokes, or impacts of the gut microbiota. We are currently reviewing new articles that were published in the meantime and will soon update the list.