Artificial Sweeteners List: Every Name and E-Number on Labels

Non-sugar sweeteners appear in far more than diet soda: protein powder, chewing gum, flavored water, ketchup, cough drops, toothpaste, children's vitamins, and even some sliced breads. The FDA has approved six high-intensity artificial sweeteners as food additives, and each carries an E-number on European labels, which is often the fastest way to spot them. This page lists all of them, plus the polyols and plant-derived sweeteners that fill out the sugar-free aisle.

Aspartame (E951, sold as Equal and NutraSweet) is about 200 times sweeter than sucrose and dominates diet beverages. It is the most studied food additive in history, with an FDA acceptable daily intake of 50 mg per kilogram of body weight, roughly 19 cans of diet soda a day for an adult. In 2023 the IARC classified it as Group 2B, possibly carcinogenic, while the WHO's food additive committee simultaneously reaffirmed the existing intake limit, a split verdict worth understanding in context. Products containing it must carry a phenylalanine warning for people with the genetic condition PKU. Sucralose (E955, Splenda) is around 600 times sweeter than sugar, made by chlorinating sucrose, and is heat-stable enough for baking, though some studies suggest it can degrade into questionable compounds at high oven temperatures. Acesulfame potassium (E950, Ace-K) is rarely used alone; it has a metallic edge, so it is blended with aspartame or sucralose in most diet drinks.

The older and newer synthetics round out the six. Saccharin (E954, Sweet'N Low) is the oldest, discovered in 1879; it carried a US cancer warning label from 1977 until 2000, when the rat bladder tumor mechanism was shown not to apply to humans and it was delisted. Neotame (E961) and advantame (E969) are aspartame derivatives, 8,000 and 20,000 times sweeter than sugar respectively, used in tiny amounts in industrial food production and rarely seen on consumer packets. One more matters for travelers: cyclamate (E952) is banned in the US since 1970 but remains legal in the EU, Canada, and much of the world.

Polyols, or sugar alcohols, are a separate class: sorbitol (E420), mannitol (E421), isomalt (E953), maltitol (E965), lactitol (E966), xylitol (E967), and erythritol (E968). They provide bulk as well as sweetness, which is why sugar-free gum and chocolate rely on them. Because they are incompletely absorbed, sorbitol and maltitol in particular cause bloating and laxative effects above roughly 20 to 30 grams. Erythritol was long considered the gentlest, but a 2023 Nature Medicine study linked high blood erythritol levels to cardiovascular events, prompting follow-up research that is still ongoing. Note that xylitol is acutely toxic to dogs even in small amounts.

Then come the sweeteners marketed as natural. Steviol glycosides (E960), purified from the stevia leaf, and monk fruit extract (mogroside V, GRAS in the US but not yet approved in the EU) are plant-derived, though both undergo substantial extraction and purification. Thaumatin (E957), a protein from the katemfe fruit, appears occasionally as a flavor modifier. These have cleaner safety records to date, but a plant origin is not by itself evidence of safety, and they are usually found in the same heavily formulated products as the synthetics. For the health evidence across the whole category, including the WHO's 2023 advice against using non-sugar sweeteners for weight control, see are artificial sweeteners bad for you.

The practical challenge is blending. A single protein bar can contain sucralose, Ace-K, and erythritol at once, each dose small, but stacked across everything you consume in a day. Sweeteners also sit alongside dozens of other formulation aids covered in our guide to common food additives, and beverage labels are where they cluster most, which is why we keep a separate list of drinks without artificial sweeteners. A scan reads every name and E-number in one pass, so nothing on this list slips through.