Report on Hazards and Risk Assessment of Aspartame Released： You can safely eat it within a daily limit.

　　Xinhua News Agency, Geneva, July 14th (Reporter Wang Qibing) The Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization released an assessment report on the health impact of artificial sweetener aspartame on July 14th, which classified aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic to human beings" (Class 2B carcinogen), and considered it safe to eat as long as the intake was limited within a certain range.

　　Aspartame is an artificial sweetener, and its chemical name is methyl aspartate, which is regarded as a sweetener instead of sucrose by the food industry. Since 1980s, aspartame has been widely used in various food and beverage products such as sugar-free drinks, chewing gum and yogurt. Up to now, the use of aspartame in food has been licensed in nearly 100 countries around the world, but the impact of aspartame on health has been controversial for decades.

　　In this latest assessment report released on the 14th, the International Agency for Research on Cancer cited "limited evidence" of human carcinogenicity and classified aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (class 2B carcinogen). Specifically, the evidence of aspartame on human carcinogenesis is limited, and the evidence of experimental animal cancer and carcinogenesis mechanism is also limited.

　　In the evaluation report, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives reiterated that the evaluation data showed that there was no sufficient reason to change the previously determined allowable intake standard of aspartame within 40 mg per kilogram of body weight per day, and a person’s daily consumption of aspartame was safe within this limit.

　　According to a press release issued by WHO in official website on 14th, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives conducted independent and complementary assessments on the health effects of aspartame. After reviewing the existing scientific literature, both assessments point out that the existing evidence of aspartame in cancer and other health effects is limited.

　　Francesco Blanca, director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety of WHO, said in a press release: "The evaluation of aspartame shows that although the safety of aspartame is not the main problem in common doses, its potential impact has been described, and more and better studies are needed to investigate."