QandAs: Food

What is Aspartame in Food Ingredients?

Answer:
Aspartame (pronounced AS'-par-taim)

is an artificial sweetener substance with the chemical name: aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester, and it was originated by a chemist with G.D. Searle & Company in 1965.

Aspartame, a widely used ingredient in many foods, drinks, snacks, candy, gum, toothpaste, mouthwash, and many other ingestible and consumable products is a methyl ester of the dipeptide of aspartic acid and phenylalanine; two amino acids.

I don't know; seems a bit confusing any way you describe it, doesn't it?

My current research indicates the latest accepted FDA ruling is that aspartame is here to stay because the United States FDA has not seen fit to withdraw its approval for use in consumer products. Aspartame use is actually increasing; being used in more and more products all the time.

Aspartame is part of a group of ingredients known as excitotoxins, which are thought to contribute to or even cause some health ailments and diseases; especially those associated with the neurological system.

Aspartame, once ingested, breaks down into aspartic acid, methanol, phenylalanine; and further into a diketopiperazine (a form of cyclic peptides), formaldehyde, formic acid.

Phenylalanine, an essential amino acid, is known to be hazardous to people who have a genetic disorder called phenylketonuria (or PKU); which is characterized by the inability to effectively metabolize phenylalanine. Persons with this condition must monitor and control their intake of phenylalanine. Since aspartame converts and breaks down to that, it can be dangerous to those people.

In the United States and many other countries around the world, product ingredients containing aspartame must be clearly identified on ingredient labels, with warnings: In the U.S., the required wording is: "Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine".