Diet Coke drinkers have been reassured by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the beverage is safe to consume despite the sweetener used in it being labelled a “possible carcinogen.”
The WHO has added Aspartame, which is found in thousands of everyday products, to its list of substances that may cause cancer.
However, WHO and United Nations experts have concluded that the current recommended daily intake of up to 40mg per kg of body weight, equivalent to 14 cans of Diet Coke for an average-sized adult man, would remain unchanged.
Aloe vera, talcum powder and some pickled vegetables have the same “2B” classification as possible carcinogens.
The ruling on Aspartame’s carcinogenic status was first leaked to Reuters two weeks ago, sparking a fierce backlash from the food industry and widespread concern among consumers.
At the time, market analysts said the evaluation could have “a negative impact on sales volumes of lower-calorie sodas,” as reports emerged of people “kicking” their Diet Coke habits.
After the WHO confirmed Aspartame was still safe to drink on Thursday, the International Council of Beverages Associations later said coverage of the ruling had “needlessly confused consumers with sensational speculation”.
Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Cambridge and a leading British expert on risk, described the classification of Aspartame as a possible carcinogen as “a bit farcical”.
He said that WHO and UN experts tasked with “actually” investigating the “magnitude of any risk found ‘no convincing evidence from experimental animal or human data that Aspartame has adverse effects’.”
‘Limited evidence’ of cancer threat
Making the formal announcement on Thursday evening, the WHO said two separate and “complementary” investigations into the sweetener had been completed.
The first was done by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer research arm of the WHO, which reviewed the potentially hazardous properties of Aspartame.
It said there was “limited evidence” to suggest that Aspartame may cause cancer in humans, but enough to justify its classification as “possibly carcinogenic” while further research was undertaken.
The IARC ruling does not take into account how much Aspartame a person can safely consume.
The second evaluation was done by the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), run by the WHO and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, which considered the risk to consumers.
It “concluded that the data evaluated indicated no sufficient reason to change” the current acceptable daily intake, adding that it was “safe” to consume up to the maximum recommended limit.
“Our results do not indicate that occasional consumption should pose a risk to most consumers,” Dr Francesco Branca, Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the WHO, told reporters.
During a press conference held on Wednesday, WHO Senior Epidemiologist Moez Sanna said even high consumers of Aspartame consume ten times less than the level at which is considered low risk.
Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Reading, said the ruling was “very welcome as it ends the speculation about the safety of Aspartame”.
He said: “The problem with the leaked report was that it showed only one part – the hazard identification. Knowing that something is potentially dangerous is useful as one can then start to manage the risk, but it is not really helpful if the information is without any context.
“This illustrates also the importance of distinguishing between hazard and risk and highlights the difficulty in communicating hazards: sunlight is a hazard as it can cause cancer, but the risk depends on the amount of sunlight and whether we use protection.”
