Did the World Health Organization say that aspartame, a widely used artificial sweetener, is carcinogenic? No, that's not exactly true: Flags have been raised by a July 2023 assessment based on evidence defined as "limited." This has led, though, to reclassify aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic" to humans. A clear link between aspartame and cancer has not been established yet, and further studies have been recommended. The acceptable daily intake has not changed, as, at commonly used doses, a safety risk has not emerged.
The claim reappeared as a video (archived here) published on TikTok by @numnim.chada on July 2, 2023, under the title, translated from Thai to English by Lead Stories staff, "Aspartame is carcinogenic." It opened (as translated):
WHO is preparing to announce aspartame as carcinogenic.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Dec 25 21:32:30 2023 UTC)
The TikTok video claims that aspartame is carcinogenic. An announcement made by WHO and the International Agency for Research on Cancer on July 13, 2023, stated that aspartame has been reclassified as Group B2, "possibly carcinogenic," based on "limited evidence" for carcinogenicity in humans. In the press release, Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, said that "the assessments of aspartame have indicated that, while safety is not a major concern at the doses which are commonly used, potential effects have been described that need to be investigated by more and better studies."
The B2 classification is generally used either when there is limited, but not convincing, evidence for cancer in humans or convincing evidence for cancer in experimental animals, but not both, as explained in the press release.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration commented that, while being aware of the conclusions issued by IARC and WHO about aspartame, this "does not mean that aspartame is actually linked to cancer."
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that has been in use in the U.S. since the early 1980s. It is present in many foods and beverages because it is much sweeter than sugar, so a much lower quantity can be used to obtain the same level of sweetness. At the same time, aspartame has raised concern for years because of the results of studies in lab rats published by a group of Italian researchers in the late 2000s, as explained by the American Cancer Society, which suggested that aspartame might increase the risk of certain blood-related cancers and other types of cancer. Still, a clear association between aspartame consumption and the development of cancer in humans has not been established, and experts have recommended more studies.
Aspartame contains four calories per gram, just like sugar. Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar, and many people consume aspartame instead of sugar to lose weight. Still, a 2017 review of studies that monitored participants over several years found no evidence that the low-calorie sweeteners aspartame, sucralose, and stevioside actually helped manage weight.
