What is the Sweetener Sucralose？

Sucralose, commonly known as sucralose, CAS No; 56038-13-2, its sweetness is 600 times that of sucrose and about 400-700 times that of white granulated sugar. It is a white to nearly white crystalline powder. It is actually odorless, non hygroscopic, and easily soluble in water, ethanol and other Solvents.

Since the hydrogen and oxygen groups are replaced by chlorine atoms instead of carbohydrates, sucralose will not be absorbed by the human body. Moreover, it is very stable in nature, can be discharged from the body through human metabolism without damage, and will not provide any energy to the human body. It is commonly used in sugar free drinks, and is also used by diabetics and other people who abstain from sugar.

As a sweetener, strict safety assessment is required before it is allowed to be used. In the past 20 years, there have been more than 100 safety studies on sucralose, involving toxicity, carcinogenicity, reproductive health, kidney health, brain health and blood health, child health and nutrition. Studies have shown that it is safe for the general population (including children, pregnant or lactating women) to use sucralose as a food ingredient. Therefore, China allowed sucralose to be used in the food industry in 1997, while the United States approved it in 1998 and further expanded its scope of use in 1999. In 2004, the European Union also approved sucralose.

Of course, some recent studies have shown that sucralose is still dangerous in case of improper or excessive use. For example, sucralose induces a significant increase in the incidence of all hematopoietic tumors in male mice exposed to 2000 (P ≤ 0.01) and 16000 ppm (P ≤ 0.01), with a significant dose-dependent relationship (P ≤ 0.01). Microscopically, most tumorigenesis in male mice treated with 30% to 16000ppm sucralose was leukaemia involving lung, liver, spleen, lymph nodes and bone marrow, with diffuse vascular infiltration and extensive infiltration of adjacent tissues. However, it was also pointed out that there were defects in this study. The subjects were rats rather than humans. Secondly, the dosage was too high. Moreover, the sucralose used contained maltodextrin and glucose. These substances are likely to cause the experimental results.

In addition, high temperature is generally used in baking, and sucralose may be thermally degraded at high temperature to generate potentially toxic compound chloropropanol (according to the data of chemical source network, it can be seen that chloropropanol will decompose into toxic gas when burned or heated). Therefore, it is prudent not to use too much sucralose.