FSANZ invites comment on Advantame artificial sweetener

  • September 7, 2010
  • Nicole Eckersley

SugarFood Standards Australian New Zealand has invited comment on a plan to approve Japanese-made sweetener Advantame.

The sweetener, made by the world’s largest aspartame supplier Ajinomoto, was also submitted to the US’s Food and Drug Administration in April.

Advantame is described as ‘thousands of times sweeter than sugar’, meaning that much smaller quantitites would be required to produce a sweet taste. Aspartame is around 200 times sweeter than sugar.

The sweetener has been submitted for approval “for use in table top sugar substitutes and a range of powdered beverages including fruit drinks, milks and milk-flavoured drinks, instant tea and coffee and protein drinks.”

The first application by Ajinomoto was made in September 2009, and determined to be technologically justified as a food additive.

“It can be used in a wide range of beverages that would otherwise contain sugar and is effective as a high intensity sweetener.

“Additionally, at low concentrations it has a flavour enhancing effect. Advantame has been demonstrated to be stable for twelve months when used in powdered beverage mixes and thirty-six months when used in a tabletop sweetener powder.”

Following the application, FSANZ has conducted a number of animal and human studies, with a risk and technical assessment determining that “there are no public health and safety issues associated with the proposed addition of Advantame to food.”

Public comment can be made to FSANZ regarding the new food additive.


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Reader Comments

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One Response to “FSANZ invites comment on Advantame artificial sweetener”

  1. Rich Murray on September 12th, 2010 5:02 pm

    Since Advantame is 100X sweeter than Aspartame, so that much less is consumed, then of course some concern is reduced about the hazard from the rapid release of the methanol component into the blood, with the resulting conversion of methanol by the ADH enzyme into highly toxic formaldehyde in the parts of tissues directly adjacent to capillaries.

    However, the potent cumulative toxic effects of this process are not yet widely understood.

    Woodrow C Monte, PhD, Emiritus Prof. Nutrition gives many PDFs of reseach —
    methanol (11% of aspartame) puts formaldehyde into brain and body —
    multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, cancers, birth defects, headaches: Rich
    Murray 2010.05.13
    http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.htm
    Thursday, May 13, 2010
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1601

    [ Other formaldehyde sources include alcohol drinks and tobacco and wood smoke, while adequate folic acid levels protect most people, but not for brain and retina harm.

    See also:

    sweeteners (aspartame), methanol (becomes formaldehyde),
    and premature babies in Denmark, TI Halldorsson et al
    2010.06.30 AmJClinNutr: Erik Millstone: Betty Martini:
    Rich Murray 2010.07.08
    http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.htm
    Thursday, July 8, 2010
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1609 ]

    http://whilesciencesleeps.com/references

    589 references — click on each title for free full pdf

    Article 2 http://www.thetruthaboutstuff.com/review2.html

    Selection from Article 2, Fitness Life, December 2007, and
    well discussed in the DVD video:

    “Identical Symptoms of MS, Methanol Poisoning and Aspartame Toxicity” — more given below ] …