Aspartame is a safe food ingredient. The makers of aspartame and manufacturers of food and drinks containing aspartame are very concerned that allegations made by Ms Betty Martini will lead people to misascribe to aspartame symptoms which have another, possibly serious, cause.

Apart from a taste of sugar but with virtually no calories, aspartame brings nothing new to our diet. The components of aspartame occur in a very wide range of the foods we eat every day, including meat, fish, eggs, cheese, fruit and milk.

More than 200 objective scientific studies underline aspartame's safety, and no well-conducted trial has shown there to be any concern whatsoever about its use. Leading scientific and health authorities in more than 100 countries throughout the world, including the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA), experts of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, the Scientific Committee on Foods of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the governments of all 15 member states of the European Union, have approved aspartame for use in food and beverages.

For some years now, Ms Martini has been spreading wild and extreme allegations about the safety of aspartame on the internet, sometimes using the alias "Nancy Markle." In 1999, Dr David Hattan of the FDA and Dr David Squillacote of the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation published extensive rebuttals of Ms "Markle's" allegations.

Dr Hattan's response to Ms Martini can be found at: Opinion: United States Food and Drug Administration

Dr Squillacote's response can be found at: Opinions: Multiple Sclerosis Foundation

Aspartame has a history of twenty years' safe use. More than 250 million people around the world choose products sweetened with aspartame every day. Aspartame has been shown to make a positive contribution to long term weight control and, because it is non-cariogenic, it contributes to dental health.