Aspartame, the artificial sweetener found in everything from diet drinks, yogurt, ice cream and breakfast cereals to medicines, toothpastes and instant coffee, has been determined by the World Health Organization to be "possibly carcinogenic.”
Citing the results of two new assessments of the health impact of the popular artificial sweetener, the WHO said that it has "limited evidence” that aspartame can cause cancer in humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer’s report designated the sweetener as possibly carcinogenic. Another assessment, from the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, or JECFA, found that at the current amounts commonly used by consumers, the safety of aspartame isn’t a major concern.
Despite the findings, "potential effects have been described that need to be investigated by more and better studies,” Francesco Branca, director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, said in a statement.