The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) has reportedly reassessed the nutritional benefits and risks of intense sweeteners, confirming that two new studies “provide no sufficient scientific basis for a toxicological re-evaluation of aspartame.” ANSES apparently dismissed the first study concerning the effects of aspartame on mice because of methodological deficiencies, while finding the second one insufficient to establish a cause and effect relationship between aspartame and preterm delivery.
The agency concluded, however, that it shares “the desire of the European Food Safety Authority to study the toxicological risks inherent in sweeteners.” It thus noted that it intends to “broaden” its aspartame research, as well as initiate “a working group to assess the nutritional benefits and risks of intense sweeteners and the need to draw up recommendations for any vulnerable population groups—including pregnant women—identified in the course of its work.” See ANSES Press Release, March 15, 2011.
