EFSA accused of bias in safety assessment
Sticking with the theme of food safety, another topic that got FoodNavigator readers tweeting was the accusation that the EFSA's decision making was biased by conflicts of interest in relation to its approval of controversial sweetener aspartame.
According to UK academics at the University of Sussex, the safety of aspartame for human consumption has not been ‘adequately proven’.
Since 1974, research has linked aspartame consumption with heightened risk of brain damage, liver and lung cancer, brain lesions and neuroendocrine disorders, the Sussex researchers stressed.
Nevertheless, in 2013 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that aspartame and its breakdown products are ‘safe for [the] general population’, including infants, children and pregnant women. At the time, EFSA ruled out potential association between aspartame consumption and brain damage or cancer.
Currently, in Europe aspartame is authorised to be used as a food additive in foodstuffs such as drinks, desserts, sweets, dairy, chewing gums, energy-reducing and weight control products and as a table-top sweetener.
Professor Erik Millstone, one of the report’s authors, told this publication the research provides ‘robust grounds’ for consumers to mistrust EFSA and its judgements.
“EFSA was supposed to provide ‘evidence-based policy-making’, but instead it seems to be reproducing the old way of providing ‘policy-based evidence selection and interpretation’.”