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Sweeteners

Sweeteners or sugar substitutes are food additives used to give a sweet taste to foods and beverages such as soft drinks, desserts, dairy products, sweets, chewing gum, and low-calorie and weight control products. 

Some sweeteners such as aspartame or sucralose are many times sweeter than sugar. 

Sweeteners can be produced in different ways such as by extraction from plants (for example, steviol glycosides or thaumatin) or from other materials of vegetable origin (for example, neohesperidin DC, derived from citrus). 

They can also be synthesised (for example, saccharin) or obtained using microorganisms in the production process (for example, erythritol).

Some common substances with a sweet taste are not considered sweeteners under EU regulation. This list includes, for example, monosaccharides, disaccharides or oligosaccharides and foods containing these substances used for their sweetening properties. 

Other sweet substances intended as sugar replacers that were not consumed to a significant extent prior to May 1997 are assessed separately as novel foods

As for all food additives, new sweeteners must undergo a safety evaluation prior to market authorisation in the European Union (EU). 

EFSA’s scientists are currently re-evaluating the safety of all sweeteners that were already permitted for use in foods before 20 January 2009. 

The presence of a sweetener must be indicated on the label of a food or drink either by its name or its E number.

Topic page: Food additives

Latest

The following table lists the sweeteners authorised for use in the EU and the status of EFSA’s respective safety assessments. EFSA’s ongoing re-evaluations can be tracked via our public tool Open EFSA.

E numberNameEFSA's assessment
E 420SorbitolsRe-evaluation ongoing
E 421MannitolRe-evaluation ongoing
E 950Acesulfame KRe-evaluation ongoing
E 951 AspartameRe-evaluation completed in 2013
E 952CyclamatesRe-evaluation ongoing
E 953IsomaltRe-evaluation ongoing
E 954SaccharinsRe-evaluation completed in 2024 
E 955SucraloseRe-evaluation ongoing
E 957ThaumatinRe-evaluation completed in 2021
E 959Neohesperidine DCRe-evaluation completed in 2022
E 960aSteviol glycosides from SteviaFirst evaluated in 2010
E 960cEnzymatically produced steviol glycosidesEvaluated in 2019
E 960dGlucosylated steviol glycosidesEvaluated in 2022
E 961Neotame

First evaluated in 2007

Re-evaluation ongoing

E 962Salt of aspartame-acesulfameRe-evaluation ongoing
E 964Polyglycitol syrupEvaluated in 2009
E 965 MaltitolsRe-evaluation ongoing
E 966LactitolsRe-evaluation ongoing
E 967XylitolRe-evaluation ongoing
E 968ErythritolRe-evaluation completed in 2023
E 969AdvantameEvaluated in 2013

Milestones

  1. 2023

    April

    EFSA publishes a revised protocol on hazard identification and hazard characterisation of sweeteners to take into account revisions made during the implementation phase of the original protocol approved by EFSA’s FAF Panel on 17 January 2020.

  2. 2021

    November

  3. June

    EFSA requests additional information from interested parties and publishes a call for genotoxicity data on sweeteners.

  4. 2020

    August

    EFSA publishes a protocol for assessing exposure to sweeteners.

  5. February

    EFSA publishes a protocol for the assessment of hazard identification and characterisation of sweeteners. 

  6. 2019

    December

    EFSA holds a meeting with stakeholders on the two draft protocols detailing the approach and the methodology that will be followed for the ongoing re-evaluation of authorised food additives, under Regulation (EC) No 257/2010. 

  7. May

    EFSA requests additional information from interested parties on the characterisation of the particle size of substances when used as food additives. Data were also requested for the salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962).

  8. 2018

  9. 2017

    EFSA publishes a call for technical and toxicological data on sweeteners. 

  10. 2016

    EFSA publishes a statement on the validity of the conclusions of a mouse study on the carcinogenic potential of sucralose (E 955) performed by the Ramazzini Institute. 

EFSA's role

EFSA assesses the safety of sweeteners in the same way as for other food additives. See our topic page on food additives.

In the area of health claims, EFSA has also evaluated a number of claims of beneficial health effects for consumers related to sweeteners.

EU framework

Under EU legislation, all additives including sweeteners, must be authorised before they can be used in foods.