Aspartame Essay

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Recommended: Analysis of aspartame

Aspartame has been known as one of the most famous sweeteners and additives to food. Since its discovery in 1965-1969, it has now been developed into a commercial product in which several products use it to enhance its sweetness and taste. Because of this, it has also been a very prosperous commercial product where its company developers get much profit on. Nonetheless, it has been the subject of issue and controversy. Several reports and studies rebuke the suitability of it being a food product stating that it is more known as a poison. Therefore, in this essay, the advantages and limitations of Aspartame as a chemical food additive will be analyzed and evaluated with regards to Economic and environmental factors. Also, the physiological effect of this chemical additive will be looked upon and discussed.
Aspartame or known by its chemical formula of C14H18N2O5, is a very common chemical food additive usually added in artificial sweeteners for coffee and other products like Splenda and Equal. It is also mixed with other food products like candy, gum, vitamins and supplements. Its molar mass is 294 grams per mol or it has 294 as its molecular mass. Its chemical structure forms a dipeptide-methyl ester (Walters, 2001). Aspartame is known as a synthetic chemical combination which is built approximately on phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol (Wells, 2011). It is a solid and can dissolve with water (Walters (2)). It is chemically manufactured by using tritylation and chlorination ("Chemical Process Steps," n.d.). But when its manufacturing process is discussed, its patent reveals that it uses by-products of genetically-modified cells and later treated with chemicals and methanol to produce aspartame (Butler, 2013).
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...rtame is several times sweeter than sugar, it then means that it needs less amount to add flavor to food. It results to less packaging usage, lesser emissions from factories in the long run and reduced carbon footprint (Sustainability: Aspartame and the environment, n.d. para 2). Also, it uses lesser fertilizer and pesticide. It is chemical based therefore, the use of land area and pesticides can be ignored. However, it is said that aspartame is produced from genetically modified organisms therefore these organisms may do the opposite to the environment. There are chances that it can cause land pollution.
As a conclusion to the whole essay, aspartame is a food additive embedded with unfavorable effects. It seems as a good product to the economy and to the environment, but speaking of its human physiological effects, it is adverse to the development of good health.

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