“Possibly carcinogenic”: what does the petition launched this Tuesday to ban aspartame, this additive that is potentially dangerous for health, contain ?

The NGO Foodwatch, the French association Ligue contre le cancer and the French nutrition application Yuka launched a joint petition on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, aimed at banning aspartame, a controversial sweetener that is potentially dangerous for health.

The stated objective of this petition, distributed in eleven European countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland): “Putting pressure on European institutions to ban this additive and asking the Member States of the European Union to act” as a precaution, we can read in a joint press release.

Present, according to Foodwatch, in more than 6,000 products, including so-called light products such as certain sugar-free sodas, 0% yogurts and chewing gum, aspartame has been authorized in France since 1988 and has sparked debate about the risks that this artificial sweetener could pose to health.

“A completely avoidable risk”

In 2023, the World Health Organization classified it as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.

According to Philippe Bergerot, president of the League against Cancer, quoted in the joint press release, there is a “no reason to allow people to be exposed to a completely avoidable risk of cancer” and “we call on our policy makers to take responsibility and ban it”.

Other studies have noted risks related to diabetes or even premature birth in connection with the consumption of aspartame.

Additive E 951

The additive, identifiable on labels by its number E 951, was reassessed in 2013 by EFSA, the European Food Safety Agency responsible for evaluating products on the European food market, without being called into question.

“Conflicts of interest”

But Foodwatch, the League against cancer and Yuka are concerned about “conflicts of interests”, they noted in their press release.

Indeed, according to a Foodwatch report on aspartame also published on Tuesday, “nearly three-quarters of the studies on aspartame considered reliable by EFSA were financed or influenced by the (food) industry, which calls into question the credibility of the risk assessment, and therefore of the approval of aspartame” by the European institution.

Nitrite salts

At the end of 2019, these three consumer and health protection entities had already jointly launched a campaign against nitrite salts in food because of their role in the appearance of certain digestive cancers, followed by effects in certain manufacturers who had modified their recipes.