EFSA Completes Added Sugars Assessment

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has completed a “comprehensive safety assessment of sugars in the diet and their potential links to health problems.” The assessment aimed to set a tolerable upper intake level for dietary sugars, but the panel was unable to reach a conclusion. According to the assessment’s plain language summary, “the risk of adverse health effects (responses) increased across the whole range of observed intake levels (doses) in a constant (linear) manner, i.e. the higher the intake, the greater the risk of adverse effects.” The announcement indicated that the wide-ranging assessment may allow researchers to set a tolerable upper intake level following future studies.

One panelists reportedly stated, “We screened over 30,000 publications so we have identified several areas to target for researchers and technicians. The pooling and reuse of individual human data from research studies would be a valuable source of information. Research should focus both on the health effects of dietary sugars and on the impact of clinical and community interventions designed to reduce sugar intakes. Finally, we need validated methods for assessing intakes and the standardisation of reporting guidelines and definitions for dietary sugars and their sources.”