Where Is Aspartame Hiding in Our Everyday Products?
- Additives
Aspartame perfectly illustrates the contradictions of the food industry: marketed as a healthier alternative to sugar, it has made its way into thousands of products—often at the expense of transparency for consumers.
Aspartame can now be found in more than 6,000 products across Europe. It is an intense sweetener, roughly 200 times sweeter than sugar, which means that only a very small amount is needed to create a strong sweet taste.
Yet behind this apparent efficiency lies a more troubling reality: aspartame has quietly become a staple of many everyday foods, often without consumers realizing it.
To spot it, you need to read the ingredient list carefully. It usually appears as “aspartame” or under its additive code E951. Labels are also required to include the phrase “contains a source of phenylalanine” to warn people with phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare genetic condition.
Everyday Products That Contain Aspartame
Aspartame is especially common in sugar-free drinks. From Coca-Cola Zero and Pepsi Max to Sprite Zero and countless “light” sodas, these products have become bestsellers for the soft drink industry.
But sodas are only the beginning. Aspartame can also be found in:
- Candies and chewing gum: many “sugar-free” sweets, such as Mentos gum, contain aspartame.
- Flavored dairy products: some “light” yogurts and desserts, including Yoplait 0%, use it as a sweetener.
- Sports products: to add sweetness without calories, aspartame is used in sports drinks like Powerade (Coca-Cola) and in protein yogurts such as Nestlé’s Lindahls range.
- Medicines and supplements: some chewable or effervescent tablets use aspartame to mask bitterness.
Why Is Aspartame Used?
Sugar has long been identified—rightly—as a major driver of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Consumers are increasingly trying to cut down on it. In response, food companies replace sugar with artificial sweeteners to maintain the addictive sweet taste of their products.
But there’s a catch:
- Aspartame does not help with weight control and may even reinforce the craving for sweetness. Avoiding sugar in one product may simply lead people to consume it elsewhere.
- Outside of medical use for people with diabetes, sweeteners like aspartame offer little benefit.
- By using aspartame, manufacturers also reduce their sugar tax burden while keeping products sweet and marketable.
In 2025, thanks to foodwatch’s campaigning, soda tax rules were tightened to also account for the sweetening power of additives like aspartame.
Why Vigilance Matters
While companies highlight “reduced sugar” as a selling point, aspartame itself remains mired in scientific and health controversy. In 2023, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO) classified it as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
This makes consumer vigilance essential. Reading labels, identifying E951, and knowing where aspartame hides are key steps for those who want to avoid it.
But ultimately, it should not be up to shoppers to decide whether a substance with potential cancer risks belongs in their supermarket basket. The solution is clear: aspartame must be banned from our food once and for all.
No to aspartame in our food and drinks!
Join the movement: Sign our petition to ban aspartame now!