Estimated intake of the sweeteners, acesulfame-K and aspartame, from soft drinks, soft drinks based on mineral waters and nectars for a group of Portuguese teenage students

Abstract

In a survey of levels of acesulfame-K and aspartame in soft drinks and in light nectars, the intake of these intense sweeteners was estimated for a group of teenage students. Acesulfame-K was detected in 72% of the soft drinks, with a mean concentration of 72 mg l−1 and aspartame was found in 92% of the samples with a mean concentration of 89 mg l−1. When data on the content of these sweeteners in soft drinks were analysed according to flavour, cola drinks had the highest mean levels for both sweeteners with 98 and 103 mg l−1 for acesulfame-K and aspartame, respectively. For soft drinks based on mineral water, aspartame was found in 62% of the samples, with a mean concentration of 82 mg l−1 and acesulfame-K was found in 77%, with a mean level of 48 mg l−1. All samples of nectars contained acesulfame-K, with a mean concentration of 128 mg l−1 and aspartame was detected in 80% of the samples with a mean concentration of 73 mg l−1. A frequency questionnaire, designed to identify adolescents having high consumption of these drinks, was completed by a randomly selected sample of teenagers (n = 65) living in the city of Coimbra, in 2007. The estimated daily intakes (EDI) of acesulfame-K and aspartame for the average consumer were below the acceptable daily intakes (ADIs). For acesulfame-K, the EDI was 0.7 mg kg−1 bw day−1 for soft drinks, 0.2 mg kg−1 bw day−1 for soft drinks based on mineral waters, and 0.5 mg kg−1 bw day−1 for nectars, representing 8.0%, 2.2%, and 5.8% of the ADI, respectively. A similar situation was observed for aspartame. In this way, the EDI for soft drinks was 1.1 mg kg−1 day−1, representing only 2.9% of the ADI. In respect of nectars, the EDI was 0.2 mg kg−1 bw day−1, representing 0.5% of the ADI. Soft drinks based on mineral waters showed the lowest EDI values of 0.3 mg kg−1 bw day−1, accounting for 0.7% of the ADI.