Sweeteners in Foods

Introduction

1. A wide range of sugars are available for purpose of sweetening foods, such as fructose, honey, maltose, sucrose etc.
   
   
2. In food industry, the use of low-calorie sugar substitute or sweeteners to replace sugars is common.
   

What is Sweetener

1. In legal term, sweetener means any chemical compound which is sweet to the taste, other than sugars and other carbohydrates or polyhydric alcohols.
   
   
2. Generally, sweeteners have intense sweetness usually many times that of sugars, and could be applied at low level to give a sweet taste in food. As only a small amount of the sweeteners is used, the energy content of the food is reduced when compared with food sweetened by sugars. For example, 1g of Aspartame can replace 200g of sucrose, providing 4 calories of energy instead of 800 calories from sucrose.
   
   
3. Common examples of sweeteners are cyclamate, saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium.
   
   
4. Sweeteners are used in a wide variety of foods such as tabletop sweeteners (containing aspartame or saccharin), diet carbonated drinks (containing aspartame and acesulfame potassium), chewing gum (containing aspartame) etc.
   
   
5. The most popular applications of sweeteners are:
   - To reduce the chance of tooth decay
   - To help obese people in weight control
   - To produce foods for diabetic

Legislative Control

1. In Hong Kong, sweeteners are regulated under the Sweeteners in Food Regulations of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap.132. Under the legislation, only the following sweeteners are permitted to be used in food: Acesulfame Potassium, Alitame, Aspartame, Aspartame - acesulfame Salt, Cyclamic Acid (and Sodium, Potassium, Calcium salts), Saccharin (and Sodium, Potassium, Calcium Salts), Sucralose , Thaumatin.
   
   
2. According to the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations of Cap.132, pre-packaged food should be labelled if it contains sweeteners.
   
   
3. We have a food surveillance programme in place for sweeteners.
   
   

Health and safety of Sweeteners

1. The safety of sweeteners has been assessed by international authorities including the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). They recommended a list of artificial sweeteners that posed no harmful effects, teratogenic effect or carcinogenicity on humans, provided they are consumed in moderation.
   
   
2. Prior to approval of a food additive, JECFA would assign an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) which represents the level of a food additive that can be safely consumed on a daily basis over a lifetime. For example, an ADI of 40 mg/kg body weight/ day for Aspartame.
   
   
3. It is unlikely that a person may consume enough sweeteners on a given day to reach the ADI. For example, a 60kg individual would have to consume approximately 5 liters of beverage (containing 0.48g Aspartame/ liter) or 70 packets (containing ~0.034g Aspartame/ packet) of table-top sweetener a day to reach the ADI.
   
   
4. The use of sweeteners in the local marketplace is mainly on snacks, rather than on staple foods. The dietary intake, and hence the health risk to the general population is therefore not expected to be high.
   
   
5. Sweeteners are also used in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia etc.

Advice to the Public

1. Have a balanced diet and ensure that the same sweetener should not be consumed excessively.
   
   
2. For personal concern and medical reasons over the use of sweeteners, seek advice from health professionals.
   
   
3. Read the food label in detail to see whether the food concerned contains sweetener.
   

Advice to the Trade

The food trade is advised to keep updated about the regulations governing the use of sweeteners and the proper labelling of pre-packaged food.

Risk Assessment Section
Updated December 2003