“There is no time to waste.” It is the shout of the shared heart on Tuesday, February 4 by Ngo Food Watch, The Cancer League and Yuka. In a joint press release, the three organizations solemnly ask that the European Union agencies banish the good aspartamo, which can be “perhaps” cancer for the World Health Organization (WHO) in July 2023.
“By emphasizing the possible risks of cancer linked to Aspartamo, WHO has sent a clear signal about the risk of our health. Our European decision manufacturers must protect us,” says Camille Dioz, Food Watch France campaigns.
“Who and many scientific studies highlight this risk. We cannot say that we did not know,” adds Philippe Bergerot, president of the League against Cancer. “We ask our political decision manufacturers to assume responsibility and prohibit it.”
E951 in our daily products
Coca Zero, Vichy, Dafalgan Pastilles … Depending on the collaborative open food database, at least 1,600 references of daily products of the French contain this ingredient in a sweetening power. Sometimes registered as Aspartamo, it is also designated under its abbreviation: E951. It is this massive presence that irritates organisms.
Through a European scale request, the three groups are directed directly to the European Commission and the EU member states. They expect an “unprecedented mobilization of consumers throughout Europe” against this unwanted element.
“Since it is not demonstrated today that Aspartamo is safe for health, it should no longer be authorized in the European market,” organizations said, in one voice, in the press release.
Who, however, had been more cautious in his interpretation of scientific data. In 2023, Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the WWN health, health and development department, had issued a warm warning:
“We do not advise companies to withdraw their products and do not recommend consumers to stop their consumption completely.” The recommended daily doses had not been checked down.
A natural consumer boycott?
The dangers of Aspartamo are better and better surrounded, even if the debate has been in disaster for several years. In the opinions published in 2013 and then updated in 2023, the European Food Security Authority had put the danger of the product in perspective, even concluding its safety.
According to Foodwatch, Yuka and the National Cancer League, these reports “have been subject to several criticisms of their conflicts of interest” and, therefore, their conclusions are at least questionable.
Consumers have taken their choice. For ten years, the French have accepted this ingredient less and less in their dishes. “In the last ten years (…) the use of intense sweeteners decreases sharply, in particular that of the aspartam ) On March 19, 2024.
As explained in March at BFMTV.com Julie Gauvreau-Béziat, Head of the Food Observatory in ANSES, consumers move away from the new “Naturality Expectations” of the products, where the aspartamo “is much more chemical” than other products of suction.
Source: BFM TV
