The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently rejected calls to ban aspartame, finding no evidence that the widely used sweetener causes health issues.

According to Law360.com, “the FDA shot down two citizen petitions that urged regulators to recall the ingredient and to revoke a regulation that allows its use in food.”

Check out this excerpt from the article:

“According to the FDA, the petition blamed incidences of brain tumors and seizures on aspartame but failed to back up its allegations with concrete data.  ‘The anecdotal accounts of adverse effects of aspartame cited in the citizen petition are not supported by scientific evidence,’ FDA officials said.  Regulators at times suggested that the concerns are nothing new, writing that some of the alleged health risks were raised roughly 30 years ago and addressed in detail at the time.  Over the past decade, almost 200 adverse events tied to aspartame have been reported to the FDA, but there is little reason to give much credence to those supposed side effects, according to Friday’s response.  ‘FDA has not identified any causal link between aspartame consumption and the reported adverse events, and does not know of an established mechanism that would explain how aspartame is associated with the reported adverse events,’ the agency said.”

The FDA, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the World Health Organization (WHO) and regulatory agencies in more than 100 countries have reviewed aspartame and found it safe for consumption. The American Medical Association, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) and the American Diabetes Association also recognize aspartame as safe.

And, as recently as December 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reaffirmed that aspartame is safe for consumption by the general population.

Read the full Law360.com article by clicking here.  And visit LetsClearItUp.org for more facts on low-calorie sweeteners and other topics.