Cyclamate has been the subject of extensive scientific research and is now approved for use in more than 100 countries, including Europe, Mexico, and Australia. The scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the safety of cyclamate and assists in determining safe levels of human consumption. Specifically:
- Two dozen studies demonstrate that even after ingestion of high doses of cyclamate throughout the lives of laboratory animals, cyclamate does not cause cancer.
- More than 70 studies, comprising an unusually comprehensive group of mutagenicity tests and incorporating at least ten different testing methodologies, demonstrate that cyclamate is not mutagenic.
- Numerous studies of human populations have found no excess cancer risk -- this despite the fact that subjects consumed cyclamate, as well as saccharin, for a number of years.
The following are statements from leading regulatory bodies and health groups about the safety of cyclamate:
“[T]he collective weight of the many experiments.indicates that cyclamate is not carcinogenic.”
FDA's Cancer Assessment Committee (CAC)
“The totality of the evidence from studies in animals does not indicate that cyclamate or its major metabolite cyclohexylamine is carcinogenic by itself.”
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
“The new epidemiological data revealed no indications of harmful effects on human
reproduction parameters of either cyclamate used as food additive or of workplace exposure to cyclohexylamine.”
Scientific Committee for Foods (SCF) of the European Union
“FSANZ has assessed the safety of cyclamate including the consideration of new data, and has concluded that the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) ADI for cyclamate of 11 mg/kg body weight/day is adequately protective of consumers.”
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
“Several further studies in rats and mice have since confirmed that cyclamate is not carcinogenic and more than 30 subsequent studies of human populations have found no excess cancer risk in subjects that have consumed cyclamate for a number of years.”
