PLS: Re-evaluation of salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962) as food additive

Publié le:

10 septembre 2026

Background

The salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962) is a sweetener authorised for use in a range of foods and beverages in the European Union (EU).
When ingested, E 962 breaks down into aspartame and acesulfame, resulting in the release of the same constituents as those released following the consumption of the authorised sweeteners aspartame (E 951) and acesulfame K (E 950), respectively.
As E 962 was authorised for use in the EU before 2009, it is included in the Union's programme to systematically re-evaluate the consumer safety of food additives based on current scientific knowledge and consumer use.
Key previous evaluations of E 962 include EFSA's comprehensive review of E 951 in 2013, EFSA’s re-evaluation of E 950 in 2025, and earlier assessments of E 962 by the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF, 2000) and by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA, 2000).
E 951 was recently evaluated by JECFA in 2023 and by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2023/2024. IARC hazard assessments are distinct from JECFA and EFSA risk assessments as regards their purpose and methodology.

What was EFSA asked to do?

The European Commission requested EFSA to:

re-evaluate the safety of E 962;
assess consumer exposure to E 962;
determine whether existing safety conclusions and regulations for E 962 remain valid.

In the context of the re-evaluation of E 962, EFSA was also asked to update both the dietary exposure and toxicological assessments of E 951.

How did EFSA carry out this work (and what data were used)?

EFSA followed a structured risk-assessment approach that included:

reviewing data submitted to EFSA as well as published scientific literature available for E 962 up to June 2025;
separately assessing data on E 951 and E 950 from previous evaluations or updated scientific literature up to June 2025, in particular for E 951:
evaluating toxicological (substance safety and toxicity), epidemiological (human health patterns) and mechanistic (how biological damage occurs) studies;
- using a weight-of-evidence (WOE) analysis to assess the overall strength and quality of the data;
- estimating dietary exposure using food consumption data from 46 surveys across 23 EU countries alongside analytical monitoring data on sweetener levels in foods and beverages.

What were the outcomes and their implications?

E 962 does not pose a safety concern for consumers at current levels of exposure (nor do E 951 and E 950).
There are no concerns regarding genotoxicity (damage to genetic material in the body) of E 962 based on the individual assessments of its two components (aspartame and acesulfame).
Available evidence does not support a causal link between current dietary exposure to E 951 and adverse health effects such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, haematotoxicity, neurotoxicity, developmental effects, general toxicity or toxicity in any organ or tissue, or disturbances in glucose regulation.
The existing acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) for E 951 (40 mg/kg bw per day) and E 950 (15 mg/kg bw per day) remain valid for evaluating the safety of E 962.
Consumer exposure to E 950 or E 951 does not exceed the previously established ADIs.

What were the limitations/uncertainties?

Uncertainties about the potential presence of 5-chloro-acesulfame in E 950 and the lack of experimental data regarding the genotoxicity of this impurity also apply to E 962, as the salt is manufactured using E 950.

Considering this and other uncertainties identified, EFSA concluded that they do not affect the overall safety conclusions on E 950, E 951 or E 962.

What are the key recommendations?

EFSA recommends:

updating EU specifications for E 962 to ensure alignment with the latest requirements for E 950 and E 951;
reviewing limits for the toxic elements arsenic and lead in EU specifications for E 951 in line with the approach applied to other re-evaluated sweeteners.

Glossary

Acceptable daily intake (ADI): An estimate of the amount of a substance in food or drinking water that can be consumed daily over a lifetime without presenting an appreciable risk to health.

Weight of evidence (WOE): A process in which all of the evidence relating to a decision is evaluated based on its strength and quality.

Disclaimer

This plain language summary (PLS) is a simplified communication of EFSA’s Re-evaluation of salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962) as food additive. The full EFSA opinion can be found here.
The purpose of the PLS is to enhance transparency and inform interested parties on EFSA’s work on the topic using simplified language to present a summary of the main findings.
The PLS was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, using the licensed version of Microsoft Copilot. Copilot was used to summarise EFSA's scientific output, using a standardised prompt. The generated text was reviewed by EFSA scientific staff for accuracy and completeness, and additional editing was provided by EFSA Journal staff. EFSA holds editorial responsibility for the final PLS.

References

Re-evaluation of salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962) as food additive

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10259

Dossiers connexes

Aspartame Food additives Sweeteners