Background
McNeil Specialty Products Company (MSPC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market Splenda®, the only low-calorie sweetener that is made from sugar, tastes like sugar, and can be used virtually anywhere sugar is used, including cooking and baking. The FDA granted approval for the use of Splenda® as a general sweetener. FDA approval follows approvals from leading food safety authorities and experts from around the world, including the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization, and a growing number of regulatory agencies and health ministries.

"Splenda® tastes like sugar because it's made from sugar. It has no unpleasant aftertaste and keeps its sweet taste over time and when exposed to high temperatures," says MSPC general manager Neil Polo. "Unlike sugar, Splenda® has no calories and doesn't promote tooth decay. Splenda® allows food and beverage companies to create great-tasting low-calorie products."

Splenda® keeps its sugar-like taste in beverages such as carbonated soft drinks longer than any other low-calorie sweetener, greatly extending the shelf life of many products. The stability of Splenda® also makes it better suited for baked products, canned goods and other foods subjected to high temperatures in processing. "Splenda® is the only low-calorie sweetener that delivers consistent, high quality sweetness in a broad range of products under all temperature and storage conditions," notes Polo.

Internationally, millions of consumers have been using Splenda® since 1991 in hundreds of reduced-calorie and reduced-sugar products such as carbonated soft drinks, shelf-stable fruit drinks, jams, processed fruit products (e.g. apple sauce), yogurt, and baked goods. U.S. consumers can expect to see products sweetened with Splenda® appearing on supermarket shelves during the next 2 to 3 years.

Features/Benefits
Splenda® tastes like sugar with no unpleasant aftertaste. It has no calories and does not promote tooth decay. Splenda® does not interact with other food ingredients or breakdown when exposed to the hot temperatures, acidic conditions, and storage requirements common to many food manufacturing and distribution systems, such as those for carbonated soft drinks, dairy products, hot-filled teas, canned fruits, and baked goods. While taste and performance characteristics of other high-intensity sweeteners have limited the range of low-calorie products currently available, the exceptional stability of Splenda^® makes it ideally suited for use in almost all foods and beverages.

Splenda® is the sweetener of choice for millions of consumers around the world. Splenda® provides a unique combination of great taste and versatility unmatched by any other low-calorie sweeter on the market today.

Sweet Choice For Home Use
• Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar
• No unpleasant aftertaste
• May be used anywhere you currently use sugar (tea, coffee, cereal and fresh fruit)
• Only 2 calories per teaspoon
• Does not promote tooth decay
• Available in granular form with cup-for-cup equivalent sweetness to sugar for easy measuring and use
• Also available in convenient packets
• Can be used to replace sugar in most cooking and baking recipes
• Millions of consumers worldwide have enjoyed the great taste of Splenda®
• Can be safely used by the whole family

The Ideal Low-Calorie Sweetener For Your Favorite Food And Beverage Brands
• Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar
• No unpleasant aftertaste
• No calories
• Does not promote tooth decay
• Approximately 600 times sweeter than sugar and can be used like sugar
• Exceptional sweeteness delivery in high temperature and low pH foods and beverages
• Ideal performance under UHT, HTST and retort processing conditions
• No chemical interaction with flavors or other ingredients
• Currently being used as the primary sweetener in hundreds of products worldwide
• Can be safely used in all food and beverage products
• No warning labels required for products sweetened with Splenda®
• Not metabolized by microorganisms in cultured dairy systems

Origin/Discovery
Splenda® was discovered in 1976 through a collaborative research project between scientists at Tate & Lyle and researchers in carbohydrate chemistry at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London. Splenda® is made from sugar through a patented, multi-step process that selectively replaces three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule with three chlorine atoms. The result is an exceptionally stable sweetener that keeps sugar's taste without sugar's calories. After consumption it passes through the body without being metabolized or broken down.

Safety
Splenda® has been subjected to one of the most extensive and thorough safety testing programs ever conducted on a new food additive. More than 100 scientific studies, conducted and evaluated over a twenty year period, clearly demonstrate that Splenda® is safe for everyone to consume. The safety of Splenda® has been confirmed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and approvals by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the health ministries of a growing number of countries, including the Health Protection Branch of Health and Welfare Canada, Australia's National Food Authority, and the Health Ministry of Mexico. Millions of people have consumed Splenda® either in tabletop usage at home, or through hundreds of food and beverage products introduced worldwide since 1991.

Taste Profile
The taste and flavor profile of Splenda® has been studied extensively by several independent research organizations. The results of these studies have consistently demonstrated that Splenda® tastes like sugar and has no unpleasant aftertaste. Two studies were conducted using trained sensory panelists from the National Food Laboratories to compare the primary taste attributes of Splenda® and sugar. Based on rigorous analyses of the sweeteners at various concentrations, Splenda® and sugar were shown to have very similar taste and flavor profiles as shown below:

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Long Shelf Life
Splenda® is very stable in foods and beverages during long-term storage, over a wide range of pH, and at high temperatures. This allows for low-calorie products to maintain the sugar-like sweetness of Splenda® through processing and over long periods of time. Results from a study of a diet cola beverage (pH 3.1) sweetened with either Splenda® or aspartame showed that, after six months of storage at 73°F, 100% of the Splenda® remained unchanged compared with 54% of the aspartame¹. At higher temperatures the loss of aspartame was accelerated, whereas Splenda® retained all of its sugar-like taste.

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Heat Stability
The exceptional heat stability of Splenda® makes it ideally suited for use in baked products. In studies representing a range of baked goods, no measurable loss of Splenda® occurred. Similarly, in other processed food applications such as canned fruit, jams and jellies, and syrups, there was virtually no loss of Splenda® during processing and throughout typical product shelf life.


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Solubility
Splenda® has excellent solubility characteristics for use in food and beverage manufacturing, where the slow and limited solubility associated with some other high-intensity sweetneners can cause problems. Splenda® is highly soluble in water and in ethanol, both of which are commonly used in food processing. At 68°F Splenda® has a solubility of 28%, compared to the less than one percent solubility observed for aspartame at the same temperature.


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Ingredient Compatability
Splenda® has superb compatability with commonly used food ingredients, including flavors, seasonings, and preservatives.

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REFERENCES
1. G.D. Searle Co., Aspartame Food Additive Petition 2A3661. Splenda® Food Additive Petition 7A3987, pp. 623-731. Arrhenius extrapolation was used to estimate 73F data.