Daily intake of artificial sweeteners

Food safety is a global concern and increasing use of food additives pose a threat to human health. Artificial sweeteners are being sold and consumed at a fast pace in the Indian market by the urban population. Therefore a study was conducted to check the availability of artificial sweeteners and their pattern of consumption among diabetics, overweight people attending a weight loss program in a slimming center and college girls. The study was divided into two phases. The first phase comprised of a market survey in the 5 districts of Delhi which revealed a wide range of tabletop sweeteners, products containing artificial sweeteners and products sweetened with artificial sweeteners being sold in the market. The second phase of the study was to estimate the pattern of consumption and the probable daily intake among the three categories of likely consumers. The results revealed that the pattern of consumption of artificial sweeteners was maximum by diabetics followed by overweight and college girls. The mean probable daily intake for all the 3 categories for the 4 kinds of sweeteners viz. aspartame, saccahrin, sucralose and acesulfame K was found to be much below the ADI.