Sweetener Products history

In another accidental discovery, James Schlatter, a research chemist for G.D. Searle and Company, licked his fingers while developing a new ulcer drug in 1965 and, yes, tasted something sweet.

By 1968, Americans were consuming more than 17 million pounds of the stuff each year.

1974: Aspartame is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration but is soon withdrawn to investigate claims that it causes brain damage in animals.

Sucralose, which was later marketed as Splenda, was created in 1976 when scientists found a way to molecularly bond sucrose molecules with chlorine. (Yes, chlorine.) One researcher was asked to “test” the chlorinated compound, but misheard the request and tasted it instead.

1979: Aspartame is approved in France; Canderel is launched in French market.

After lengthy studies were completed, aspartame finally received FDA approval in 1981.

Sales of aspartame reached $74 million in 1982, when Searle decided to create the NutraSweet brand name.

Founded in 1983 by president & CEO Carlton E. Myers as a food processing plant, the company has evolved as more and more food companies consolidated and moved their operations out of New York State.

In 1985, NutraSweet had bought the rights from John Labatt Ltd., a Canadian beer and food concern, and spent another two years perfecting the product.

By 1986 NutraSweet was marketed in over 50 countries, including Germany, where the product had finally been granted approval that year.

According to New York Times contributor Eben Shapiro, when NutraSweet's European patents expired in 1987, the firm took strong competitive measures, cutting prices by over 60 percent, down to $27 a pound.

NutraSweet unveiled its first serious attempt at product expansion in January 1988 with an all-natural fat substitute named Simplesse.

The FDA finally approved Simplesse in 1990.

When NutraSweet announced a $20 million ad campaign in 1991, it was targeted to support the products of customers using NutraSweet.

The firm also wanted to lock up the artificial sweetener market for NutraSweet before its aspartame patent expired in 1992.

Studies by the French Food Safety Agency (2002) and the European Union Commission Health & Consumer Protection Directorate-General's Scientific Committee on Food (2002) reaffirmed the safety of the sweetener.

Equal's market share fell five percent in 2003 to 25.6 percent of United States sales to mass merchandisers, supermarkets, and drugstores.