Controversial claims about dangers from the artificial sweetener aspartame are not well-founded, a visiting authority on the substance said in Dunedin yesterday.
Adjunct professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto and a consultant toxicologist, Bernadene Magnuson, is in New Zealand courtesy of Coca-Cola Oceania.
She is lead author of a major expert review of the safety of aspartame published last year, which came to the conclusion that it was safe, a view backed by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.
Among the claims by those opposed to the sweetener are links to nerve damage, epilepsy and brain tumours.
Prof Magnuson said although the review was funded by a producer of the sweetener, researchers did not know that at the time they were carrying out the work, nor did the manufacturer know who was on the research panel.
Asked if the fact her trip was sponsored by Coca-Cola might make people think she was here to get people to drink more artificially sweetened beverages, Prof Magnuson said it was a matter of choice whether people used any products containing aspartame, but they should not make that choice based on misinformation.
Prof Magnuson said New Zealanders, even those at the top aspartame consumption level, were still well below the World Health Organisation acceptable daily intake (ADI) used as the standard here which is 40mg/kg of bodyweight. (In 2003, New Zealanders' intake was between 6% and 15% of the recommended limit, according to a survey by Food Safety Australia New Zealand.)
To reach the ADI, a 70kg adult would have to drink 16 cans of softdrink a day or 80 packets of aspartame used to sweeten tea or coffee, Prof Magnuson said.
