Saccharin General Information - President Clinton signed a bill that removed the warning label

January 1, 2008

Saccharin General Information

http://enhs.umn.edu/saccharin/generalinfo.html

A non-nutritive sweetener, saccharin is about 300 times sweeter than table sugar containing zero calories. It is sold in liquid, tablets, packets, and in bulk. Consumers can find it in ice cream, beverages, especially diet soft drinks, health and beauty products, and pharmaceuticals.This website is designed to inform people about the history and regulation that have surrounded saccharin and sodium saccharin over the last few decades. Saccharin has had a stormy past, with studies in the United States and Canada implicating it in the development of certain cancers. In the late 1970s, FDA contracted with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to study cancer-causing agents and toxic substances in foods, including saccharin. NAS reports showed that saccharin is a potential cancer-causing agent in humans. In 1977, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) listed it as a carcinogen. General consumers and the diabetic community did not want to lose their sweetener alternative. A congressional moratorium that protects the continued use of saccharin has been renewed seven times by Congress as a result of public demand. The required label warning for saccharin stated, "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."In 2000, the NTP released the 9th edition of its Report on Carcinogens in which saccharin was then de-listed. Subsequently, President Clinton signed a bill that removed the warning label requirement on products containing saccharin. Currently, food products that contain sodium saccharin continue to carry this warning. Sodium saccharin is still listed with the NTP and with Proposition 65 of the State of California as a carcinogen. The Prop 65 Carcinogen Identification Committee sought new research and public participation in 2001, in efforts to determine if sodium saccharin should be de-listed as well. This decision is still in the consideration phase.

Technical information about saccharin