Have your cake and eat it too? (Acesulfame potassium) - Shantel Coronelia

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Acesulfame potassium is a white crystal powder that is 200 times as sweet as sugar. Acesulfame potassium is commonly found in products such as diet sodas like coke zero presented above, baked goods and gum (1). This chemical is commonly used to enhance sweetness and as well as to prolong shelf life. Since this chemical is so stable it can go through more processes compared to other artificial sweeteners. An example could be that of baking where this chemical’s bonds are so stable that the bonds don’t break when it’s put in high temperatures, unlike another artificial sweetener like aspartame where it deteriorates in the last stages of baking. Due to its stability acesulfame postassium doesn’t get broken down by the body and it doesn’t build up in the body either, suggesting that once acesulfame potassium is consumed it directly gets absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract to only get excreted within 24 hours (1). This means that you can have your cake and eat it too, literally! For this reason it is popular with diet sodas and people with diabetes.

Accidently discovered by Karl Klaus and Harald Jensen in 1967 through good lab practice by not washing their hands and licking their fingers to pick up a piece of paper (3). Recently the use of acesulfame potassium has increased over the past years from 150, 000 tons being imported worldwide in 1995 to 300,000 tons being imported worldwide in 1999 (2). 

There have been concerns over this chemical and the use of methylene chloride in its production (5). Methylene chloride is believed to be a carcinogenic creating concern. As well as the concerns with the increase in insulin production, due to its sweetness it is thought that when your body consumes it the sweet receptors send signals to the brain of high glucose concentration. When insulin is secreted to lower the glucose level that the body thinks it received, it lowers the normal blood sugar levels leading to low blood sugar or otherwise known as hyperglycemia.

            The FDA has approved this chemical as a food additive since 1988 (4). There are presented by the FDA for acesulfame potassium to be used as an additive such as it can be no less than 99% pure and having a fluoride content no less than 30 parts per million. The advised daily intake is quite large of 15 mg/kg/bw/d or 900 mg/p/d which is equivalent to 2 gallons of pop or 200 grams of acesulfame potassium (5). The FDA also approved acesulfame potassium with the use of methylene chloride since there was an insignificant amount that is found in the final product.

(1)   Brimer, L. (2011). Chemical food safety: Modular texts. (p. 223). Wallingford, GBR: CABI Publishing. Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:2053/lib/mtroyal/docDetail.action?docID=10470377&p00=acesulfame

(2)   Gudoshikov, S. (2004). World sugar market. (p. 84). Cambridge, GBR: Woodhead Publishing Limited. Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:2053/lib/mtroyal/docDetail.action?docID=10131790&p00=acesulfame

(3)   shhonghaohg. ( n.d.). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.sinosweeteners.net/archives/275

(4)   U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2012, march 1). Title 21: Food and drugs. Retrieved from http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfCFR/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=172.800

(5)   Food and Drug Administration. (2003, December 17). Food additives permitted for direct addition to food for human . Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/98fr/03-32101.htm

(6) Wayne. (Photographer). (2007). coke zero cartoon. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/subjective_reality/1519444854/