Environmental life cycle assessment of production of the non-nutritive sweeteners aspartame (E951) and neotame (E961) from chemical processes: The SWEET project
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Environmental life cycle assessment of production of the non-nutritive sweeteners aspartame (E951) and neotame (E961) from chemical processes : The SWEET project. / Suckling, J.; Morse, S.; Murphy, R.; Raats, M.; Astley, S.; Halford, J. C.G.; Harrold, J. A.; Le-Bail, A.; Koukouna, E.; Musinovic, H.; Raben, A.; Roe, M.; Scholten, J.; Scott, C.; Westbroek, C.
In: Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 424, 138854, 2023.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental life cycle assessment of production of the non-nutritive sweeteners aspartame (E951) and neotame (E961) from chemical processes
T2 - The SWEET project
AU - Suckling, J.
AU - Morse, S.
AU - Murphy, R.
AU - Raats, M.
AU - Astley, S.
AU - Halford, J. C.G.
AU - Harrold, J. A.
AU - Le-Bail, A.
AU - Koukouna, E.
AU - Musinovic, H.
AU - Raben, A.
AU - Roe, M.
AU - Scholten, J.
AU - Scott, C.
AU - Westbroek, C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Consumption of added sugar is a cause of concern due to links with non-communicable diseases. Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) are increasingly seen as a viable alternative. Health and safety of NNSs are well studied, but not their environmental impact. In this study the environmental impact of NNSs aspartame and neotame are presented. This is the first such study attempting to quantify environmental impact of neotame. Life cycle data are derived from literature, alongside stoichiometric reaction equations and resulting heat changes. Global warming potential (GWP) of 1 kg aspartame is found to be 29.25 kgCO2-eq/kg, and 1 kg neotame to be 43.42 kgCO2-eq/kg. It is found that both NNSs have great potential to replace the sweetness of added sugar with reduced environmental impact, e.g., GWP of neotame is found to be 0.4–0.7%, and aspartame 10.5–18.4%, of an equivalent sweetness for sucrose. This study demonstrates that environmental impact of the additional resources required to make neotame from aspartame are more than offset by the increase in perceived sweetness, from 200 to 8000-times. It is shown that there are significant uncertainties related to life cycle inventory data and data derivation method. Therefore, this work further highlights the difficulties of conducting a life cycle assessment of highly refined industrial food additives and the need for good industrial collaboration in obtaining data.
AB - Consumption of added sugar is a cause of concern due to links with non-communicable diseases. Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) are increasingly seen as a viable alternative. Health and safety of NNSs are well studied, but not their environmental impact. In this study the environmental impact of NNSs aspartame and neotame are presented. This is the first such study attempting to quantify environmental impact of neotame. Life cycle data are derived from literature, alongside stoichiometric reaction equations and resulting heat changes. Global warming potential (GWP) of 1 kg aspartame is found to be 29.25 kgCO2-eq/kg, and 1 kg neotame to be 43.42 kgCO2-eq/kg. It is found that both NNSs have great potential to replace the sweetness of added sugar with reduced environmental impact, e.g., GWP of neotame is found to be 0.4–0.7%, and aspartame 10.5–18.4%, of an equivalent sweetness for sucrose. This study demonstrates that environmental impact of the additional resources required to make neotame from aspartame are more than offset by the increase in perceived sweetness, from 200 to 8000-times. It is shown that there are significant uncertainties related to life cycle inventory data and data derivation method. Therefore, this work further highlights the difficulties of conducting a life cycle assessment of highly refined industrial food additives and the need for good industrial collaboration in obtaining data.
KW - Added sugar
KW - Aspartame
KW - Life cycle assessment
KW - Neotame
KW - Non-nutritive sweetener
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138854
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138854
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85171345778
VL - 424
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
SN - 0959-6526
M1 - 138854
ER -
ID: 389670144