A study just published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A contradicts claims by the chemical sweetener industry that the artificial sweetener sucralose is safe because it quickly passes through the body unchanged. This claim was pivotal for gaining approval from regulatory agencies, including the US FDA for the addition of the chlorinated chemical sucralose to the food supply. However, an independent research laboratory with expertise in food quality and food safety testing, Avazyme Inc. in Durham, NC, in collaboration with researchers at North Carolina State University, have found that sucralose is indeed metabolized in the intestines. Furthermore, the research team also found that sucralose accumulates in fat tissue after prolonged exposure. Dr. Volker Bornemann and his team at Avazyme have many years of experience in studying xenobiotic metabolism and utilized state of the art ultra high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and mass spectrometry to analyze fecal, urine, and fat samples from test specimens, who were exposed to sucralose daily for an extended period of time. Dr. Bornemann noted: “At first, we did not see any difference to what other researchers had found before, when we replicated their methodology. Only after we used a different, more suitable extraction methodology and study design did we find that sucralose had actually been metabolized to a significant extent, and also accumulated in the adipose fat over time. These sucralose metabolites had never been reported before.” One of his co-authors, Dr. Susan Schiffman, concludes: “The important data and findings obtained in this study raise serious new concerns about food safety, and strongly demonstrate that it is now time to revisit the regulatory status of sucralose.”
The entire study can be accessed at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15287394.2018.1502560
For additional information, please contact:
Dr Volker Bornemann e-mail: Media@Avazyme.com
Dr. Susan S. Schiffman e-mail: ssschiff@ncsu.edu
