French Food Agency to Broaden Aspartame Study

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.