The NGO Food Watch and the French Cancer Application and the application of French nutrition, Yuka, launched a common petition, on Tuesday, aimed at banning controversial local aspartame as it possibly a risk to health.
This petition presented in 11 European countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, also France, Italy and Ireland, as well as Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland) aims to “pressure European institutions to prohibit this added material and asked the European Union member states” to take appropriate measures as a precaution, according to what came In a joint statement.
“Food Watch” explained that the substance of aspartame is present in more than 6 thousand products, especially in those called light, such as some soft drinks free of sugar and yogurt free from sugar and gum.
This industrial sweetener has been licensed since 1988 in France, a discussion on its potential health risks. In 2023, the World Health Organization ranked “a substance that causes cancer in humans.”
The joint statement quoted the head of the Cancer Anti -Cancer Association, Philip Berrio, as saying that “there is no reason to let people be exposed to the risk of cancer that can be completely avoided,” calling on “political decision makers to assume their responsibility and ban” this article.
Other studies have indicated the risks associated with diabetes or even premature birth as a result of the consumption of aspartame.
The European Food Safety Authority responsible for evaluating products in the European food market in 2013 re -assessed this added material that can be identified on the stickers through its number E 951 (E 951), but it was not considered to be considered on the leave of its use.
However, Food Watch, the Cancer Anti -Cancer Association and Yuka expressed concern about the existence of “conflicts of interests”, according to the joint statement.
A report by the organization on the aspartame was also published on Tuesday that “three quarters of studies on the aspartame that the European Food Safety Authority considers to be confident, conducted by funding from the food industry or affected by it, which raises questions regarding the credibility of the risk assessment”, and therefore in the matter of grace The European Authority of Spartam.
At the end of 2019, these three bodies for consumer protection and health launched a joint campaign against nitrite salts in food because of their role in the emergence of some types of digestive system cancer, prompting some manufacturers to change their recipes.