EFSA Raises Acesulfame K Daily Intake Limit by 66 Percent to 15 mg per kg

On April 30, 2025, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced an updated safety assessment of acesulfame K (E 950), a synthetic sweetener widely used in the EU. This re-evaluation, conducted by EFSA’s Food Additives and Flavourings (FAF) Panel, replaces the previously accepted daily intake limit of 9 mg/kg body weight with a new, higher threshold of 15 mg/kg.

EFSA’s updated conclusion is based on a comprehensive review of prior authorisations, toxicity and carcinogenicity studies in rats, and recent scientific literature. Importantly, the sweetener and its degradation products were found not to raise genotoxicity concerns, even under low pH and elevated temperature conditions.

One potential impurity, 5-chloro-acesulfame, raised flags in in-silico evaluations, prompting the panel to recommend either a strict impurity cap at 0.1 mg/kg or further genotoxicity data submission.

The panel emphasized that estimated exposure levels remain below the newly revised ADI across all population groups. As such, EFSA advised the European Commission to consider updating the additive’s legal specifications in light of the latest findings.

This revised limit offers greater flexibility to food producers while still prioritizing consumer safety.