Tag: Sweetener history

In 1879, a chemist working with coal tar derivatives made a groundbreaking discovery when he forgot to wash his hands before eating. This serendipitous mistake is just one tale in the surprising history of how sweeteners have been discovered by accident, forever changing the food industry.

Over 500 billion packets of Sweet'N Low have been produced since its inception. But before it became a ubiquitous table-top sweetener, the question of what was Sweet and Low originally made for reveals a tale of post-war enterprise and a shift towards calorie-free living.

Aspartame, one of the world's most popular artificial sweeteners, was not created to sweeten diet sodas and low-calorie foods. Its unique properties were discovered by chance in 1965 by a chemist who was developing a drug for an entirely different purpose, highlighting one of history's great serendipitous scientific finds.

Saccharin was first discovered in 1879, long before the modern food additive approval process, making its regulatory history complex. The question of when did the FDA approve artificial sweeteners, therefore, has different answers depending on the specific product.

In 1970, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US officially banned the use of cyclamate, a popular sugar substitute. This swift regulatory action came after animal studies linked the additive to an increased risk of bladder cancer, triggering a major controversy and a significant shift in the diet food industry.