Responding to the Ban on Cyclamates

On October 18, 1969, the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare banned future production of food products containing cyclamates (used in some artificial sweeteners), which had been shown to cause cancer in rats.

Some parts of the food industry responded to the ban by reintroducing sugar into some of their products. Pepsi was one of the companies that played up the added flavor of using sugar in its Diet Pepsi line while downplaying the extra calories. Meanwhile, Pepsi and other manufacturers worked on new, safer sweeteners.

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This page was last updated on November 20, 2017.