Recently, in order to help the public fully understand the relevant scientific knowledge about sweeteners, six professional organizations, including the China Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center, the Health Communication Branch of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, the Food Hygiene Branch of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, the Nutrition and Health Institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food Safety and Standard Technology Branch of the Chinese Society of Food Science and Technology, and the Food and Nutrition Science Communication Alliance, jointly formulated and issued the "Scientific Consensus on Food Sweeteners".

Sweeteners are one of the most common food additives. They can reduce sugar and calories while ensuring the taste of food. Chen Junshi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center, pointed out that sweeteners are increasingly widely used in food and beverage production and processing around the world due to their high sweetness, low energy (or no energy), stable process performance, and high safety. As a food additive that gives food a sweet taste, sweeteners also provide more diverse choices for consumers who need to reduce and control sugar.

Reduce sugar while maintaining sweetness

The National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030) proposes to accelerate the transformation of food processing to nutrition, and give priority to the study of the amount of oil, salt and sugar in processed foods. The National Healthy Lifestyle Action Plan (2017-2025) requires that counties (districts) across the country carry out special actions of "three reductions and three healths" (reducing salt, oil and sugar; healthy oral cavity, healthy weight and healthy bones), and reducing sugar is one of them.

It is human nature to like sweets. How can people enjoy sweetness while reducing sugar intake? The emergence of sweeteners provides a variety of options to solve this problem. Compared with added sugars such as sucrose and fructose syrup, sweeteners have the following characteristics:

First, the sweetness is high. The sweetness of most sweeteners is equivalent to dozens or even thousands of times that of sucrose, so only a very small amount is needed to obtain the appropriate sweetness.

Second, they are low in energy. Sweeteners usually provide no energy or only provide less energy, and because they have a small blood sugar response, they can also be consumed by patients with high blood sugar and diabetes.

Third, sweeteners can reduce the risk of tooth decay caused by sugar intake.

Fourth, sweeteners have good water solubility and processing stability and are easy to use in food processing.

As consumers' demand for low-sugar and sugar-free food and beverages continues to grow, it has become a trend for sweeteners to replace part of the sugar. my country is a major producer and exporter of sweeteners, and the main products are: sugar alcohols, such as xylitol, maltitol, erythritol, etc.; high-intensity sweeteners, such as sodium cyclamate, saccharin (sodium), aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, etc.; natural sweeteners, such as steviol glycosides and mogrosides, etc.

Safety guaranteed

At present, the international authoritative organizations for the safety evaluation of food additives, such as the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), have reached a unanimous conclusion on the scientific evaluation of sweeteners: the use of sweeteners in accordance with relevant regulations and standards will not cause harm to human health.

my country's "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" (GB2760-2014) has specific provisions on the types of sweeteners allowed, the scope of use, and the maximum amount of use. Taking the common aspartame as an example, assuming that a bottle of soda (330 ml) uses only aspartame as the source of sweetness, according to the maximum limit of 0.6 g/kg stipulated in GB2760-2014, an adult weighing 60 kg would have to drink more than 12 bottles of such soda a day (assuming that there are no other sources of aspartame in this person's diet) to reach the maximum daily allowable intake set by the standard. Therefore, as long as the sweetener is used according to the standard, it is safe.

Experts suggest that consumers should cultivate a "balanced eating and exercise" lifestyle, improve their health literacy, and choose food that suits them according to their own needs; food production companies should respond to the "National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030)" and the "National Healthy Lifestyle Action" on the "Three Reductions and Three Healths" special action initiatives, provide consumers with more diversified products through innovation, and promote the improvement of public health levels.