Opinion on Dutch children and the intake of artificial sweeteners

The food industry is looking at possibilities to reduce, amongst others, the amount of sugar in food. Sugar can be replaced by sweeteners. The intake of artificial, non nutritive sweeteners of young Dutch children was estimated and compared to the health limit (ADI). An ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake) is the amount of a food additive, expressed as milligrams per kilogram of body weight, which can be ingested daily throughout life without causing additional health risks. The most commonly used sweeteners were examined, namely acesulfame-K (E950), aspartame (E951), cyclamate (E952), saccharin (E954) and sucralose (E955). In the Netherlands, almost all 2-6 year old children were exposed to these artificial sweeteners. The assessment showed that the ADIs for these sweeteners were not exceeded. Given the rising trend in adding sweeteners to foods and drinks, it is important to continue monitoring the intake of sweeteners periodically. Children are often simultaneously exposed to multiple sweeteners. In such cases interactions cannot be excluded and thus, a combined exposure to amounts of sweeteners below the individual ADIs may not be assumed to be safe in all cases. Further research is needed into the effects of mixtures of artificial sweeteners.NL; nl; vwaefsafocalpoint@vwa.n