What are sweeteners?

Sweeteners are defined as foodstuff additives. These act as sweetening agents. Sweeteners have no or virtually no calorific value, either calories or joules, and are produced by synthetic means.

How safe are sweeteners?

Sweeteners have been tried and tested for generations. Their safety and benign effect have been put to the test scientifically time and again – almost more than any other foodstuff additive. Many international studies have shown that sweeteners are quite harmless from a health point of view. Süssina and Süssina Gold are manufactured from ingredients subject to very strict controls. The sweeteners used come under both national and European legislation and the quality standards imposed therein.

Prejudices against sweeteners

As sweeteners are produced synthetically, many people still have reservations about them. Words such as ‘chemical’ or ‘artificial’ are frequently used. The prejudice is wholly unfounded.

Medical science has demonstrated that very many people have a greater allergic reaction to substances occurring naturally in fruit and vegetables than to additives in industrially manufactured foodstuffs.

Two features characterise sweeteners best:

1. Sweetening strength, i.e. capacity for sweetening (e.g. 1 Süssina tablet equals 6g sugar)
2. The flavour quality of the sweetener.

As sweeteners are among the most-investigated additives, if correctly used they are harmless to health.

Maximum consumption of sweeteners

Exceeding the ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake) is in normal circumstances out of the question, even if you eat a lot of products dosed with sweeteners every day.

There is no defined maximum quantity for the consumption of sweeteners that can be considered the threshold of a toxic effect. The World Health Organisation specifies an individual ADI value for every foodstuff additive (and thus for every individual sweetener), which describes the lifelong harmless daily consumption per kilo of body weight.

ADI values per kilo of body weight:*
Acesulfame: 15 mg
Aspartame: 40 mg
Cyclamates: 11 mg
Saccharin: 5 mg
* Source: Deutscher Süssstoffverband, January 1999

What is an ADI value?

The ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake) value puts a figure on the acceptable daily consumption of an additive in milligrams per kilo of body weight that people can consume throughout their lives without it being injurious to their health.

The basis for determining ADI values is generally long-term experiments with animals. They establish the highest dose at which no health-related effects can be detected. This No Effect Level (NEL) divided by the safety factor of 100 gives the ADI value.

For example, if the NEL is 100 mg per kg of body weight, the ADI value is 1 mg per kg of body weight. The mixtures of sweeteners used in many products reduces the ADI of an individual sweetener still further, because sweetener combinations work synergetically on the sweetening strength and are therefore dosed substantially lower

The ADI value is a kind of ‘safety guarantee’ – not to be confused with a threshold level for toleration or even a risk level of sweeteners. It assumes lifelong consumption and must not be assessed in terms of quantities consumed on an individual day. The ADI is a whole-life value, and does not relate to a single day or a single meal.

ADI values per kilo of body weight:*
Aspartame: 40 mg
Cyclamate: 11 mg
Saccharin: 5 mg

* Source: Deutscher Süssstoffverband, January 1999

What does ‘Contains phenylalanine’ mean?

This warning is intended solely for the tiny percentage of the population that suffers from a rare disorder of the metabolism called phenylketonuria (PKU). For all other consumers except pregnant women, this warning has no significance. Phenylketonuria is a very rare inherited disorder that prevents the natural and (for the human organism) important protein constituent phenylalaline being broken down and metabolised in the normal way.

What is the difference between sweeteners and sugar substitutes?

There are some major differences between sweeteners and sugar substitutes such as. Xylose, isomalt, mannitol, sorbitol , fructose, etc.:
- sweeteners supply no calories or mass, and have substantially higher sweetening strength, no influence on the increase in blood sugar and no laxative effect.
- sugar substitutes supply calories, mass and volume like sugar, have sweetening strength similar to sugar and in quantity have a laxative and flatulent effect.

In short, sugar substitutes (e.g. sorbitol, etc.) have no critical advantage over sweeteners.

Shedding weight with sweeteners?

With exercise and appropriate care with foodstuffs containing fat, shedding weight is generally possible.

With sweeteners you don’t have to give up good meals. They also make it easier to lose weight and, once down, keep it down for good. Sweeteners have no influence on the hunger-satisfying mechanism. They supply virtually no calories and have no side effects on health.

Claims that sweeteners increase the appetite supposedly because they cause an insulin fall-out have been scientifically refuted. No sweeteners have a stimulating effect on insulin or blood-sugar levels.