Low- and No-Calorie Sweetener (LNCS) Presence and Consumption among the Portuguese Adult Population

Abstract

The use of low and no-calorie sweeteners (LNCS) in food and beverages has become increasingly common in the development and reformulation of products to reduce energy derived from added sugars. Our aim was to identify the presence and consumption of LNCS through food and beverages according to consumption patterns in a representative sample (n = 256) of the Portuguese adult population. The study had a descriptive cross-sectional observational design and was based on the application of a Food Frequency Questionnaire. Overall, it was found that 4.1% of the foods and 16.7% of the beverages consumed by the Portuguese adult population contained LNCS. Food groups mostly contributing to LNCS consumption were non-alcoholic beverages such as soft drinks and juices (34.2%); milk and dairy products (16.5%); appetizers such as chips (8.6%); sugars and sweets such as chocolates, candies, or chewing gums (6.1%); meat and derivative products (2.2%); cereals and derivatives (1.2%) and canned fruits (1.2%). Main LNCS consumed were acesulfame-K, sucralose, and aspartame, single or combined, although their prevalence of use differs greatly among foods, beverages, or tabletop sweeteners. In conclusion, LNCS were found across a wide variety of products available in the Portuguese market and their prevalence of inclusion in the diet of the population evidences the need to develop more studies on the evolution of LNCS intake and its impact on the full dietary model and health. Consequently, these food additives should be included in food composition databases and, periodically, updated to reflect the recurrent reformulation strategies adopted by the food industry in its efforts to reduce the energy contribution of added sugars.

Nutritional Description of Foods with Low- and No-Calorie Sweeteners in Spain: The BADALI Project

“…Our re-sults are similar to those obtained in Brazil [38]. Non-alcoholic drinks is generally the food group with the highest proportion of LNCS in all countries studied, including our work, and 2-5.5 fold higher than in foods [4,5,13,17,38,44,45,49,53,55,[57][58][59]. Our results show that as many as 78.1% of soft drinks had LNCS.…”

“…We obtained 9.3% in a sample of 3558 foods, well within the international range and very similar to the 10% obtained in 1164 foods from the ANIBES study [44]. The presence of LNCS in total or non-alcoholic drinks (dairies are usually not included here) vary between 10% in Hong-Kong to 41.1% in Colombia, with 72-83% in Chile and less than 1% in Australia [5,[13][14][15]17,38,47,49,50,53,55,56,58]. Our re-sults are similar to those obtained in Brazil [38].…”

“…Total prevalence of LNCS in foods and drinks vary from around 1% in Australia to up to 16% in Colombia, with the exception of Chile with 38-55.5%, depending on the study [5,13,14,17,38,44,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]58,59]. We obtained 9.3% in a sample of 3558 foods, well within the international range and very similar to the 10% obtained in 1164 foods from the ANIBES study [44].…”

“…A recent work in Spain reported that as many as 79% of adults do so on a daily basis [4]. Similar results were obtained in Portugal by the same authors [5]. In USA, a publication in 2017 showed that 41.4% of adults consumed LNCS, whereas this figure was 25.1% among children [6].…”

“…Studies on the prevalence of LNCS in foods and drinks in several countries, including Spain, have been published in recent years [4,5,[13][14][15]17,38,[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Despite differences, some general conclusions may be drawn, most of them shared by our own results.…”