Is there an Accepted Daily Intake (ADI) for sucralose? What is the ADI for sugar? Why is there an ADI?

Part of the US Food and Drug Administration’s procedure for approving any food additive is to establish the Acceptable Daily Intake or ADI. The ADI is defined as the amount of the substance that a person could consume safely every day throughout life. The amount is determined using the results of both animal and human studies.

Sucralose is derived from sugar through a patented, multi-step process that substitutes three chlorine atoms for three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule. The tightly bound chlorine atoms create a molecular structure that is exceptionally stable and is approximately 600 times sweeter than sugar. Because it is not digested by the human body, it can add no calories or carbs to the diet. The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for sucralose, established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is 5 mg/kg of body weight per day. That means that a person who weighs about 150 lbs could consume 2450 mg of sucralose a day, or the equivalent in sweetening to about 3.25 lbs of sugar. Sucralose has been approved for use in a variety of food products including baked goods and drink mixes. Because it is so sweet, you would have to eat a literal pile of sucralose sweetened food every day to ingest the 5mg/kg limit known to be safe.

I hope this makes you feel confident that you can use sucralose safely. Be sure to count the carbs in the foods the sucralose is used to sweeten!

BB