Sodium saccharin is an artificially-produced sweetener that is used to sweeten foods, beverages and some personal care products like toothpaste and mouthwash. We choose to leave it out of our products for those who wish to avoid this ingredient.

Saccharin has around 300 times the sweetness of normal sugar but is known to have a metallic aftertaste at high concentrations. It was first developed in 1879, but it didn't see much popularity until the sugar shortages of World War I, and then again in the 1960s and 70s with dieting trends. It is known in the US under the brand name Sweet'n Low.

The safety of sodium saccharin was called into question in the 1960s, and was considered a possible carcinogen until 2000, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Toxicology Program removed saccharin from its list of carcinogens. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has stated that there is inadequate evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of saccharin salts used as sweeteners.

Other names: C₇H₄NNaO₃S, Crystallose, Saccharin Sodium, Sodium Saccharine

Chemical class: Organic Salts

REFERENCES

Robin C. Guy. Saccharin. Editor(s): Philip Wexler, Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Second Edition), Elsevier, 2005, Pages 750-752, ISBN 9780123694003, https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-12-369400-0/00857-7.

J.F. Lawrence. SACCHARIN. Editor(s): Benjamin Caballero, Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition (Second Edition), Academic Press, 2003, Pages 5033-5035, ISBN 9780122270550, https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-12-227055-X/01033-6.

National Center for Biotechnology Information (2022). PubChem Compound Summary for CID 656582, Saccharin sodium. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Saccharin-sodium.