Facts About Low-Calorie Sweeteners

Everyday, millions of Americans choose low-calorie sweeteners and products made with low-calorie sweeteners. Among the many benefits they offer, low-cal sweeteners allow your clients to enjoy sweet foods and beverages while cutting calories, managing carbohydrate intake and reducing added sugars. As part of an overall healthful lifestyle, people around the globe rely on low-cal sweeteners as a tool to help:

• Control Calories
• Reduce Weight

History & Safety

Extensive testing is required before any ingredient to commercial foods and beverages is deemed safe and allowed in the U.S. food supply. Safety, per the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is assessed as "a reasonable certainty in the minds of competent scientists that the substance is not harmful under the intended conditions of use."

According to the FDA:

Food and color additives are strictly studied, regulated and monitored. Federal regulations require evidence that each substance is safe at its intended level of use before it may be added to foods. Furthermore, all additives are subject to ongoing safety review as scientific understanding and methods of testing continue to improve. Consumers should feel safe about the foods they eat.

All low-calorie sweeteners currently available in the U.S. have been approved for use in commercial foods. The two regulatory paths for approved use include:

• FDA approval for use as a Food Additive. This process is detailed in the "Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act" and requires premarket approval.
• FDA review of additives generally recognized as safe (GRAS). According to FDA, foods included in this category are generally recognized by experts as safe, "based on their extensive history of use in food before 1958 or based on published scientific evidence." This process does not require premarket FDA approval. Among the many GRAS substances are salt, sugar and the low-calorie sweetener Stevia/Rebaudioside A.

For more information on the regulatory process for approving food ingredients, please visit FDA.

Approved Sweeteners

The low calorie sweeteners currently available in the U.S. include:

• Aspartame - roughly 200 times sweeter than sugar (found in Equal®, NutraSweet®, NatraTaste Blue®)
• Acesulfame potassium (Ace-K) - roughly 200 times sweeter than sugar (found in Sunett ®, Sweet One®)
• Saccharin - - roughly 300 times sweeter than sugar (found in Sweet'N Low®)
• Stevia/Rebaudioside A - roughly 2-300 times sweeter than sugar (found in Stevia Extract In The Raw®, Purevia®, Truvia®)
• Sucralose - - roughly 600 times sweeter than sugar (found in Splenda®, NatraTaste Gold®)
• Neotame - roughly 7000 times sweeter than sugar

Of the currently available low-calorie sweeteners, only aspartame is considered a "nutritive" sweetener, as it is metabolized by the body and provides calories. However, since so little aspartame is needed to obtain the same sweetness as sugar, the calories are negligible. Conversely, sweeteners like saccharin and sucralose are not broken down by the body at all, provide no calories, and are frequently termed "zero-calorie" sweeteners.

For more information on the various low-calorie sweeteners available today, please visit the Calorie Control Council.

What The Experts Say

The health benefits and safety of low-calorie sweeteners are widely supported by the health professional community:

Additional support for low-calorie sweeteners:

• American Council on Science and Health Affirms Safety of Sugar Substitutes
• American Heart Association Recommends Low-Calorie Sweeteners
• Canadian Diabetes Association Statement on Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners