Cyclamate

Cyclamate is a no-calorie sweetener that is 30 times sweeter than sucrose. It is soluble in liquids and because it is stable in heat and cold, it has a long shelf life. Discovered in 1937, cyclamate is approved for use in foods and beverages in more than 100 countries worldwide, including Canada, Australia and Mexico.

Cyclamate is an excellent complement to other low- and no-calorie sweeteners commonly used to reduce the calorie content of popular foods and beverages. In combination, cyclamate and other low- and no-calorie sweeteners have a synergistic effect that enhances the overall sweet taste and reduces the total amount of sweetener needed to obtain a desired level of sweetness.

Cyclamate also masks the aftertaste of other low- and no-calorie sweeteners like saccharin, improving the overall taste of foods and beverages containing these sweeteners.

SAFETY

The use of cyclamate in foods and beverages is permitted in more than 100 countries. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) has, over the past 10 years, reviewed the scientific literature related to cyclamates and consistently determined cyclamate use is safe for human. Cyclamate has also been approved by the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) of the European Commission (now the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Further support for the safety of cyclamate also comes from the Cancer Assessment Committee (CAC) of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The CAC reviewed the scientific evidence in 1984 and concluded "[T]he collective weight of the many experiments... indicates that cyclamate is not carcinogenic." The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) reaffirmed safety of cyclamate in June 1985, noting "the totality of the evidence from studies in animals does not indicate that cyclamate or its major metabolite cyclohexylamine is carcinogenic by itself."

In 1969, as a result of a controversial animal study in which rats given extremely high doses of cyclamate developed tumors, the use of cyclamate in food and beverages was discontinued in the USA and England. Since then, over 75 scientific studies on cyclamate have proven it to be safe for human consumption. In 1984, after analysis of all the scientific evidence, the Cancer Assessment Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came to the conclusion that cyclamate is not carcinogenic. In 1985 this finding was confirmed in an independent evaluation of the report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. As a result of these new studies, many authorities, including the World Health Organization, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) of the European Commission (now the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and food safety authorities in Mexico have approved its use in a wide range of foodstuffs. A petition for the re-approval of cyclamate is currently under review by the U.S. FDA.

Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI)

The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for cyclamate has been set at 11 mg/kg body weight by JECFA and at 7 mg/kg body weight by the SCF. The ADI-level is the acceptable daily dietary intake of sweeteners that these regulatory bodies have determined may be consumed every day over one's lifetime without any adverse health effect. The ADI is not a toxicological threshold. It is a bona fide figure for the amount that can be consumed safely, every day over a lifetime without any adverse health effect.

Studies on eating habits have shown that adults rarely exceed the ADI levels established for low- and no-calorie sweeteners. For example, a 68 kg (150 lb) adult would need to drink more than 3 liters of a soft drink sweetened with cyclamate to exceed the JECFA ADI for this sweetener and nearly 2 liters to exceed the SCF ADI.

METABOLISM

Cyclamate is not metabolized for energy in the body so it has no calories.

For more information see the Cyclamate Information Center website, http://www.cyclamate.org