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| Saccharin |
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) said on Sunday it would partly revise the regulations governing food additives to allow more food to contain saccharin.
Under the new measures, saccharin can be added to chocolates, baked goods, candies, ice-creams and frozen desserts. The maximum allowance for baked food is 0.17 grams while the maximum for snacks, ice-cream and chocolates is 0.1 grams and, 0.5 grams.
At present, saccharin is used only in a few products, including kimchi, jam, soju, salted seafood and cereal.
Saccharin is 300 times sweeter than sugar and low in calories. It was widely used in Korea and other countries in the 1960s and 1970s. But after a Canadian study in the 1970s found that mice given saccharin developed bladder tumors it became regarded as a harmful substance.
In line with regulations set in many nations, the Korean government also limited use of the substance.
It took more than a decade for saccharin to lose this stigma.
Research later criticized the Canadian research as "extreme," because the mice were given an amount equal to drinking 800 cans of soda every day.
The U.S. National Toxicology Program delisted saccharin from its carcinogen list in 2000, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took saccharin off its harmful substance list in 2010.
A local saccharin company filed an administrative suit against MFDS, asking it to allow saccharin to be used for snacks and baked goods. But the court ruled in favor of the MFDS last year, pointing out concerns about overuse.
