Public Health Topic: Dairy Industry Petitions FDA to Approve Aspartame as a Hidden, Unlabeled Additive in Dairy Products

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Dairy Industry has petitioned the FDA to allow our milk to be contaminated by the hidden and unlabeled addition of aspartame and sucralose to a host of dairy products including nonfat dried milk (always added to reduced-fat milks), yogurt, cream, half-and-half, sour cream, eggnog and whipping cream.

If the petition submitted by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National
 Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is approved, no conventional dairy product will be safe.

Aspartame has a checkered past rampant with Government/BigPharma collusion, revolving door employment, falsified research and unreported data. Here is a timeline along with some little known facts about aspartame.

• Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James Schlatter, a chemist at G.D. Searle, who was working on an ulcer drug. In preparation for FDA approval, safety tests were begun in 1957. Dr. Harold Waisman, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin, conducts aspartame safety tests on infant monkeys on behalf of the Seattle. Of the seven monkeys that were being fed aspartame mixed with milk, one dies and five others have grand mal seizures.

• In 1973 Searle applied for FDA approval on the basis of over 100 studies they claim support aspartame’s safety.

• Even though one of the FDA scientists stated that "the information provided (by Searle) is inadequate to permit an evaluation of the potential toxicity of aspartame," the FDA granted aspartame its first approval on July 26, 1974.

• In August 1974-- Jim Turner and Dr. John Olney file an objection against aspartame’s approval.

• In March of 1976 this finally triggered an FDA investigation of the laboratory practices of aspartame’s manufacturer, G.D. Searle. The investigation finds Searle’s testing procedures shoddy, full of inaccuracies and "manipulated" test data. The investigators report they "had never seen anything as bad as Searle’s testing."

• In January 1977 the FDA requests a grand jury to investigate whether indictments should be filed against Searle for knowingly misrepresenting findings and "concealing material facts and making false statements" in aspartame safety tests.

• Also in 1977, Samuel Sinner, U.S. Attorney in charge of the investigation leaves the U.S. Attorney’s office and takes a job with Searle’s law firm. The grand jury investigation is dropped. G. D. Searle hires prominent Washington insider Donald Rumsfeld as the new CEO.

• At about this same time, the Bressler Report, compiled by FDA investigators and headed by Jerome Bressler, is released. This report finds that 98 of the 196 animals died during one of Searle’s studies and were not autopsied in a timely manner. Numerous polyps and neoplasms were not reported.

• June 1, 1979-- The FDA established a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) to rule on safety issues surrounding NutraSweet. The board concluded that NutraSweet should not be approved pending further investigations of brain tumors in animals.

• January 21, 1981-- Ronald Reagan is sworn in as President of the United States. Reagan’s transition team, which includes Donald Rumsfeld, CEO of G. D. Searle, hand picks Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. to be the new FDA Commissioner.

• March, 1981-- An FDA commissioner’s panel advises against approval of NutraSweet, stating on the record that the Searle tests are unreliable and not adequate to determine the safety of aspartame.

• July, 1981-- In one of his first official acts, Dr. Arthur Hayes Jr., the new FDA commissioner, overrules the Public Board of Inquiry, ignores the recommendations of his own internal FDA team and approves NutraSweet for dry products.

• September, 1983-- FDA Commissioner Hayes resigns under a cloud of controversy about his taking unauthorized rides aboard a General Foods jet. (General foods is a major customer of NutraSweet) Burson-Marsteller, Searle’s public relation firm (which also represented several of NutraSweet’s major users), immediately hires Hayes as senior scientific consultant.

• Fall 1983-- The first carbonated beverages containing aspartame are sold for public consumption.

• For a more detailed timeline, see How Aspartame Became Legal - The Timeline- http://rense.com/general33/legal.htm. It is of interest to note that a literature review found 166 separate published studies in the peer reviewed medical literature, which had relevance for questions of human safety of aspartame. The 74 studies funded by industry all (100%) attested to aspartame’s safety, whereas of the 92 non-industry funded studies, 84 (91%) identified a problem. Six of the seven non-industry funded studies that were favorable to aspartame safety were from the FDA, which has a public record that shows a strong pro-industry bias.