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Every day, millions of Americans open their medicine cabinets and refrigerators. Some are looking for seasonal allergy relief, or a remedy for a mild headache. Others are just grabbing a favorite snack or drink. What they are not doing is worrying about whether the product they're about to use is safe. That's because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the products we rely on a trusted seal of approval. This assurance gives families information, choice, and ultimately, peace of mind.
The first word in FDA is food, and the FDA's unmatched experience in ensuring food and beverage safety is important to remember every day. It is especially critical, however, given the current conversation surrounding the sugar substitute aspartame, which has repeatedly been deemed safe by the FDA.
The FDA is the oldest comprehensive consumer protection agency in the U.S. federal government. It is the world's gold standard for independent regulatory bodies. And, with its dedicated scientists and rigorous processes, it has thoroughly reviewed aspartame on six different occasions over the past 40 years. These reviews took place during both Republican and Democratic administrations. They affirmed aspartame's safety every time. There is also a broad consensus for this conclusion from food safety agencies in 90 countries, citing more than 100 scientific studies. All of this matters because the FDA exists to protect and enhance public health and safety. But it is also about providing choice. It is important that families have safe, quality options—in this case an ingredient that empowers them to manage their sugar and calorie intake.
In coming days, you may hear conflicting information about the safety of aspartame, including two separate reports from agencies that are part of the World Health Organization. Only one of these reviews, the one from the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), speaks to the safety of food and beverages and provides the real-world context required to fully and fairly assess risk to human health. Thus, the FDA's guidance is clear: "We believe that a JECFA review of aspartame would have a greater impact on food safety, and public health, than one conducted by IARC [the International Agency for Research on Cancer]."
Inundated with information, consumers understandably want and deserve clarity. They want to know who to believe, even beyond the aspartame debate. We are both previous secretaries of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We worked for different administrations, and we have different views on many subjects. One subject upon which we agreed is our shared belief in the FDA's methodologies and process.
The FDA mandates a pre-market review and approval of sweeteners like aspartame. Before sweeteners like these can be used in food and beverages, manufacturers must provide high quality, reliable, and credible proof of their safety at intended use levels. The FDA doesn't simply accept or rubber stamp this information, but rather adds it to the body of evidence they have collected for their independent evaluation.
After approval, the FDA routinely reassesses already authorized substances, responding to new scientific information and ensuring the continued safety of these substances in food and beverages. For example, new studies showed a correlation between partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) and heart disease. After reviewing these studies, in 2018, the FDA concluded that PHOs are not generally safe, and decided to no longer permit their use in food products. And 80 years earlier, it was the FDA who discovered that hundreds of people in the United States died from unknowingly ingesting poisons that were marketed as cure-alls—elixir sulfanilamide.
The FDA's track record demonstrates an unmatched dedication to public health. Our country is safer because of it. We might not always notice all the FDA does to protect American families. That's the point.
Secretaries Shalala and Azar serve as co-chairs for the Coalition for Safe Food and Beverage Choices. Donna Shalala served as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary from 1993-2001. Alex Azar served as HHS secretary from 2018-2021.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
