E952 — Cyclamate
E952 (Cyclamate), a sweetener, is rated "watch": fine in moderation. A synthetic sweetener used in EU soft drinks and tabletop sweeteners. Banned for food in the United States since 1969 over old rat studies. EFSA approves it within daily limits.
What is Cyclamate?
A synthetic sweetener about 30 to 50 times sweeter than sugar. Used in EU diet drinks, tabletop sweetener blends, baked goods, and canned fruit.
What does it do to the body?
Your gut bacteria convert a small fraction to cyclohexylamine; the rest passes through unchanged. The 1969 US ban was based on bladder tumors in rats fed cyclamate-saccharin mixtures at extreme doses; subsequent reviews failed to confirm carcinogenicity in humans, but the FDA has not lifted the ban.
What regulators say
EFSA set an acceptable daily intake of 7 mg per kg of body weight per day. The FDA still prohibits cyclamate in food in the United States.
Risk rating: Watch
Mixed evidence or a specific concern (gut, allergy, or contested safety data). Not alarming, but worth keeping an eye on rather than eating without limit.