Sweetener cancer link dismissed by EU safety body

A study that links the sweetener sucralose to cancer has been dismissed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), for failing to provide the data to support its conclusions.

Following a scientific evaluation of a study on sucralose in mice by Soffritti et al, EFSA concluded that sucralose posed no safety concern to consumers.

The agency highlighted a number of flaws in the study’s methodology, including the lack of a dose-response relationship and a cause-effect relationship between intake of sucralose and the development of tumours.

The study claimed to show that sucralose given in feed to mice from prenatal life until death induced a “significant dose-related increased incidence” of malignant tumours in male mice.

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