Aspartame case study

BEM 2016 Consumer Behavior

Aspartame & Sugar Free

1Aspartame and Sugar Free Products

22 March 2013

University of Exeter


22 March 2013

The Team

Antonios AntoniadisStudent ID: 610025277Candidate Number: 012592

Clothilde FortStudent ID: 600033734Candidate Number: 005531

Elise Espitalier-Noel Student ID: Candidate Number:

Gianluigi d'AndriaStudent ID: 610027678Candidate Number: 025613

Michael Wilnitsky Student ID: 610030557 Candidate Number: 028152

Olivia MemmiStudent ID: 610011159Candidate Number:


22 March 2013

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Setting the Scene

2.1 The Science Behind Aspartame

2.2 The Politics and Legislation

2.3 Demand, Production and Distribution

2.4 Timeline: the Evolution of Aspartame and Reletade

Health Issues

3. Society’s Believes and Attitudes

3.1 Lifestyle & Motivation

3.2 Marketing Implications & Advertisement

4. Consumer Behaviour towards Sweetners

4.1 Consumer Awarness

4.2 Cognitive Dissonance and the Power of Attitudes

4.3 Gender Disparities

4.4 Cultural Differences


22 March 2013

5. Conclusion

6. Bibliography

7. Appendix


22 March 2013

1. Introduction

Aspartame is everywhere – in our restaurants, in our homes, in our shops.

Who doesn’t feel conflicted feelings when eating achocolate cake? A piece of pie? Or even just an ordinarysweet? What if I know told you, you can consume just asmuch sugar as you want, consequence less, without itinterfering with your diet. Those are the promises ofaspartame, a chemical contained in a multitude of sugarfree products.

According to the latest Health Survey for England data, in2010 62.8% of adults were overweight (aged 16 or over)i. Assuch, the market desire for sugar-free products grows at anexponential rate and the use of aspartame as an everydaytabletop sweetener has flourished. Meanwhile, the awarenessof its possible hazardous side effects is rising withincreasing research and studies being published on thismatter. The product can be both seen as the one that ismarketed to society as a solution to having healthier lifestyles but also the one that may cause irreversibledamages.

These two opposing tensions: the market desire for lowcalorie food including sugar substitutes and the fear ofthe customer’s health being threatened by marketer’s drivethe fascinating story of Aspartame.

The present paper will look at these differentperspectives and their impacts on consumer behavior. Wewill first have a look on the evolution of aspartame, thenwe will highlight the beliefs and attitudes of consumersregarding sugar free products moving towards a conclusionthat will look at different consumer behaviors onaspartame.


22 March 2013

What incentives do we have to consume products that we knowcould be of danger to us? Is it the media? Our culture? Ordoes the answer lie within us?

2. Setting the Scene

2.1 The Science behind Aspartame

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used as a sugarsubstitute in certain foods and beverages, classified inthe EU with the code E951. It was accidentally discoveredin 1965 by James M. Schlatter, and it is composed by twoamino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and methanol.Aspartame has the same amount of calories as sucrose (tablesugar), however it is approximately 200 times sweeter. Itis commonly used in most sugar free products, such as dietcoke, sweets and many more. EU regulations allow the use ofAspartame with a daily maximum consumption restriction of40mg/Kg of body weight.


22 March 2013

Aspartame is subject to many political and medicalcontroversies. Many experiments on animals have highlightedthe appearance of cancers due to the consumption ofAspartame, however no study was able to demonstrateevidence of the relationship between cause and effect.Furthermore such studies were also not able to define themechanism of action of Aspartame’s toxicity. However, oneof the most valuable hypothesis suggest that Aspartame istoxic due to the methanol it contains, which is highly knowfor causing blindness.

The debate regarding the safety of Aspartame consumption isagain of primary interest. In 2005 the California EnvironmentalProtection Agency has published its study on Aspartame, whichshowed an increase of Lymphoma (blood cancer) and Leukaemiaon female rats when consuming small doses of Aspartame.Moreover, the investigation carried out by the EuropeanFoundation of Oncology and environmental sciences “Bernardo Ramazzini”confirmed the results of the first experiment and alsoshowed a relation between the formaldehyde (derivative ofmethanol) released by Aspartame and the increase ofcerebral cancers. This study was published in July 2005 onthe European Journal of Oncology, however according to theEU authority (EFSA) its evidences were still not enough toconsider Aspartame’s further limitation or banning.

The “Bernardo Ramazzini” foundation continued with itsexperiments on Aspartame side-effects and in 2007 itpublished on the Environmental Health Perspectives a studyon the long term consequences of Aspartame consumption.This study also showed strong evidence of health riskespecially for children, even if consuming half of themaximum daily allowance (20mg/Kg). The EFSA and FSA are nowinvestigating on the result of this last study and by May2013 the EFSA will need to reconsider the risks ofAspartame consumption.


22 March 2013

2.2 The Politics and Legislation

The approval process of Aspartame goes back to the 1970sand early 1980s, where controversy over aspartame safetyhas emerged the first time. Allegations about therelationship between regulators and industry and claimsabout the falsification of safety data by Aspartame’sproducer G.D. Searle has sparked a debate about the hiddendangers of products that contain Aspartame.

The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) firstlyapproved the use of Aspartame in dry foods in 1974.Followed by approval controversy US Senator at that timeMr. Howard M. Metzen requested an investigation relating tothe degree of safety of Aspartame. The US GovernmentAccountability Office published a review including thesurveying of scientists who had partaken in the research.Among the 67 scientists, 12 expressed major concerns aboutAspartame’s safety, 26 were concerned but confident inaspartame safety, and 29 claimed to be fairly confidentthat aspartame is safe for approval.

Both the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization andWorld Health Organization have concluded Aspartame to besafe, after the reviewing of all to date available safetystudies. As far as governmental approval is concerned, morethan ninety countries, such as the United States, UnitedKingdom, the European Union and Australia have accepted thelegal status of aspartame in food consumption. Nonetheless,some nations have initiated a process of completely banningthis chemical for medical reasons. In particular, Indonesiaand South Africa have actively disapproved the use ofsweeteners, such as Aspartame and caused uprising innerpolitical discussions in other countries.


22 March 2013

In the UK, a new regulation was introduced in 1997, thatrequired companies to clearly state the phrase “withsweeteners” for their Aspartame containing products.

2.3 Demand, Production and Dsitribution

Since more than 100 countries have given the artificialsweetener aspartame the green light to be used in thousandsof food and beverage products1 , it is no surprise that theproduction of aspartame has become an enormous industry.Japanese firm Ajinomoto is the largest known producer ofaspartame sugar the company has 40 percent share, is 14,000metric tons a year, and consumption of the product isrising by 2 percent a year2. However most aspartameproducing companies are based in China and the USAincluding the controversial agriculture company Monsanto.

The market for aspartame has grown significantly over theyears. The latent demand for aspartame in 2006 was worth$644 million and increased to $767 million by 2011 withprediction of the demand for aspartame will be worth almost1 billion US$ by 2016. In 2011 Asia are responsible for 30%of the aspartame demand (11% of it coming from China)compared to 31% from Europe and 23.7% in the United States3

2.4 Timeline

1 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/09/26/aspartame-causes-brain-damage.aspx#_edn1

2http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a1rBnsdDJnM8&refer=japan

3 The 2011-2016 World Outlook for Aspartame-Based Artificial Sweeteners


22 March 2013

3. Society’s Believes and Attitudes

3.1 Lifestyle & Motivations

In today’s context of what has been sometimes pejorativelynamed the Skinny Revolution, demand for product containingaspartame, in other words sugar free products, has sharplyrisen. The main motivation for consuming sugar freeproducts, as illustrated by our survey, is to keep in shape(36. 76% of the respondents consume aspartame to keep inshape).This is due to messages vehicle by the media. In oursociety, there is a strong pressure on appearances,affecting mainly young women, but not exclusively.


22 March 2013

Aspartame is a conflict-resolving product (Karanika, 2013).Whereas the consumer usually has a trade-off decision tomake, between pleasure, for example through consuming acake, and keeping fit. Now, the consumer can have pleasurewhile eating without being guilty of putting weight on.There is no motivational conflict anymore (conflict betweena positive and negative goal of the desired product).Consuming aspartame motives are more or lessstraightforward, consumer is conscious as s/he decidesbetween a regular/normal product and a sugar free product.

As stated by the expectancy theory (Karanika, 2013) thebehavior of someone consuming aspartame is pulled byexpectations of achieving desirable outcomes, in this case,keeping in shape.

Nonetheless, appearances related motivations are not theonly ones explaining consumption of aspartame. Healthissues are important motivations to consider. Indeed, inour societies, obesity and diabetes have been a growingissue.


22 March 2013

Moreover, as we can see in our survey, the second reasonfor consuming aspartame is because “it is healthier”.Marketers then play a key role in consumer behaviors asthey create motivations or sometimes they even misinform bymaking the consumer believe that aspartame is good forhealth. Indeed, we looking at the ads, colors, figuresatmosphere make the consumer confident, and keep them farfrom reality.

3.2 Marketing Implications & Advertisement

Aspartame advertisements and product designs are tailoredto different market segments. The objective is to appeal toand provoke different consumer behaviours. In doing so, thefirm secures a larger market share.

For the purpose of our analysis, we will focus on Canderel,a sweetener producer and market leader in France.

The product


22 March 2013

The traditional Canderel table sweetener features a whitebackground and the company logo, a colourful and artisticsun, suggesting lightness and liberation. It has redborders, symbolizing ‘joie de vivre’, femininity, pleasureand tastiness.

The second sweetener is marketed as a green product. Itcontains Stevia extracts, a plant used for sweeteningpurposes, but Aspartame is still among the dominantingredients. The flower is used to support the idea of anall-natural and organic product. The light green backgroundsuggests naturalness and emphasizes the credibility of theproduct.

This limited edition of Canderel pocket sweeteners featuresthe characters of the American television series, DesperateHousewives. This creates a sense of exclusiveness andvalue. The product design is particularly slim, symbolizingelegance and femininity. This product is targeted to maturewomen from a high social class, who identify to thefeatured characters. Canderel is successfully creatingbrand personality and a self-concept attachment.


22 March 2013

Advertisement

This publicity focuses on theidea of abundance and theconsequence less pleasure ofCanderel. Aspartame isassociated to a hedonistic-likepleasure, its use and pleasureis limitless.

This advertisement is likely toappeal to younger women.

This Canderel advertisementprovokes a nostalgic attachmentthereby creating a sense ofauthenticity. The featuredcharacter, Obelix, is issued


22 March 2013

from a French comic book and is very representative of theFrench culture. The advertisement also has a humoristicappeal, de-complexing men from consuming Canderel, a morefeminine product.

This advertisement is likely to appeal to men of an olderpublic. It is also tailored to French consumers.

The following advertisement creates a feeling of guilt andpersuades the consumer to consume aspartame to keep inshape. Sugar is associated to a larger clothing size and iswritten in bold letters suggesting a lack of refinement.Canderel, on the other hand, is presented as a promise ofthinness, represented by slim jean, and is written in amore elegant way.

This advertisement is manly segmented towards youngerwomen, preoccupied with how they look, although it islikely to appeal to a larger public.


22 March 2013

The following advertisements have given us an overview onhow Canderel effectively creates a promise for health, safeand beauty. However, its promotion campaigns are oftenmisleading, as shown by the sweetener marketed as green,when one of its dominant ingredient is artificial.

4. Consumer Behaviour towards Sweetners

4.1 Consumer Awareness

Consumer awareness is a key variable influencing purchasingdecision, under the assumption that consumers behaverationally. It seems that many of our daily purchases aredone without being in possession of perfect informationtherefore we are in dangerous of being exploited both interms of value and quality. Not surprisingly the surveyshowed that 41.58% of the respondents admitted that theynever heard of aspartame, which can be easily explained bythe complete lack of information campaigns by mass media,with the exception of some blogs on the Internet.Furthermore out of the respondents that do not know whataspartame is, 38% consume sugar-free products on a regularbasis and 40% believe that such products are healthier. Onthe other side the respondents who did know or had heard


22 March 2013

what aspartame is, just 6% stated that aspartame ishealthy, however when asking if sugar-free products arehealthier, the figure went up to 22.08%. Obviously thisdata show a distortion of reality among certain consumers,enhanced by companies’ persuasive advertisement andtherefore promoting a general view in society that sugarfree products are healthier. Although it is currently notpossible to state that aspartame leads to cancer, there isstrong evidence to say that it is definitely not healthierthan regular products containing sucrose.

When consumers are exploited, government should interveneto inform and condition consumer behaviour. A clear exampleof government successful intervention has happened withcigarettes and alcohol in developed countries. In fact,although the US is among one of the most liberal countries,the smoking rate has fallen from 42% to 19.3% (1965 totoday) and similar trends can be seen in western EUcountries and in Australia. (CDC, 2012) Such achievementwas possible thanks to strong government intervention,mainly through increasing indirect taxes and banningcigarette advertisement, and information campaigns in themedia, some of which showed shocking images on the effectsof cigarette consumption, as images tend to be moreeffective than written text. Today, especially in westerncountries, the public opinion condemns tobacco consumptionand society associate cigarettes as harmful. However, thereis still approximately 19.3% of the US population thatsmokes (CDC, 2012), which is a consequence of poverty,ignorance and the addiction of tobacco, but perhaps alsothe irrationality of some consumers, especially from highersocial classes, that for a very short-term relief put indanger their health.


22 March 2013

Given the results of government intervention withcigarettes it is therefore possible to hypothesize that ifconsumers were informed on aspartame health risks as muchas with tobacco, consumption would suffer from a negativetrend. However, sugar free products may act as addictive ascigarettes particularly for female consumers, due to thecurrent widely accepted psychological myth that an idealbody reflects slimness and healthiness.

4.2 Cognitive Dissonance and the Power of

Attitudes

In our survey we found out that 27% of respondents willcontinue to consume just as much of sugar-free products as

Annual Adult per Capita Consumption and Major Smoking andHealth Events – United States 1990 -1998


22 March 2013

they did before they found out what potential dangersaspartame can bring to their health. Now this may seem as arelatively small figure, however considering the fact that65% of respondents stated that they consumer sugar-freeproducts in order to ‘keep in shape’ or because it is‘healthier’. Now this figure would not be so surprising inthe case of alcohol and cigarettes as they are highlyaddictive products and also in some ways give pleasure tothe consumer. We have to ask ourselves what psychologicalreasons may consumers have in order to keep consumingproducts that they know have the potential to seriouslyharm their health.

Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an innerdrive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony andavoid disharmony (or dissonance) (McLeod, 2008).

4

The illustration above shows us how people may try to justifyand delude themselves into thinking certain myths in order toease their mind and relieve it from having to rethink certainsituations. Similarly this process happens with consumers andproducts. For example smokers may justify their smoking assomething like ‘well we all have to die of something’ or ‘I

4 http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html


22 March 2013

can fall down the stairs and die, does that mean I have tostop walking up stairs?”. Some of the same results were seenin our survey, when asked why people would continue to consumesugar-free products they would answer ‘because all chemicalsare dangerous’ and its not been ‘proven’ that aspartame cankill. This way we can see certain aspects of cognitivedissonance arising.

This now leads us to talk about attitudes and the power ofattitudes. In consumer behavior terms attitudes are lasting,general evaluation of people, objects, advertisements orissues. Attitudes can be classified in having 3 components;affective (feelings), behavior and cognitive(knowledge/belief). This is known as the ABC model coming froLa Pierres 1934 study of attitudes and behavior. Now thestandard learning hierarchy follows the order of C-A-B, inother words consumers know something then feel an emotion andthen act. For example people who consume aspartame becausethey thinks its ‘healthier’ would go through this process.They would first identify that the product is sugar-free, thensee if they like the product and then buy it. However thoseconsumers that continue consuming harmful products may have adifferent attitude hierarchy. These types of consumers mayfollow the A-B-C sequence. They would first identify that theylike the product, then buy it and cognition would come after.This is based on hedonic consumption, or consumption forpleasure, which can be associated with most consumer thatregularly consume harmful products.

4.3 Gender Disparity

Previous studies have found that men and women differsignificantly in terms of eating habits. In our survey, we


22 March 2013

wanted to analyze these gender differences particularlyregarding their consumption of aspartame. Unsurprisingly,we found that aspartame consumers were mainly females (60%)though we expected this figure to be slightly higher as wethought that women consumed significantly more sugar freeproducts than men (see Figure 1 and 2 below)

Adhering to a slimming diet is found to be of greaterconcern for women than men (Markey and Markey, 2005). Theuse of low calories sweeteners helps reduce the caloriescontent of many foods and drinks. Our survey showed that45% of female respondents who consume food or drinks thatcontain low calorie sweeteners do so to help them keep inshape. In contrast, only 28% of men using sugar freeproducts did so to keep in shape. As such, we can inferthat women consume aspartame sugar in order to help them toachieve a special goal – keeping in shape. For femalerespondents, aspartame sugar is one of the diverse productsthat is consumed in the aim of either loosing weight ormaintaining their actual weight. Furthermore, women mightalso use sugar free products to help them reach an idealself – one that they take as a model. Indeed, women usuallydistort their body image – always aspiring to being thinnerto reach the ‘social norm’ – thereby creating a gap betweenthe real and ideal physical self. (Solomon, Bamossy,Askegaard, Hogg, 2010)

Females have been found to experience dissatisfaction andfrustration with physical appearance at a higher degreethan males (Striegel-Moore et al, 2004). Nowadays, mediasproject unrealistic standard of feminine beauty wherethinness is overemphasized and expected for women to beconsidered as attractive. For all these reasons, accordingto the expectancy theory (Lunenburg, 2011) women are morelikely to consume sugar free products in order to meet thesociety’s expectations – that is being in a good shape.


22 March 2013

Why would you consume sugar free products?

To keep in shape46%

Tastes better3%

Healthier40%

I have diabetes3%

Accidently8%

Figure 1 – Women aspartame consumers

To keep in shape34%

Tastes better9%

Healthier34%

I have diabetes

4%

Accidently20%

Figure 2 – Men aspartame Consumers


22 March 2013

4.4 Cultural Differences

Although Aspartame is used in products almost all over theworld, the extent to which people are aware of thesweetener varies from country to country. Culturaldifferences could be evaluated by comparing four countriesthat were represented the most in the survey, i.e.:Mauritius (22%), France (18%), UK (17%) and Austria (17%).Taken into consideration all respondents from the fourabove-mentioned countries, those from Mauritius and Franceseemed to be most aware of the sweetener, with respectively86% and 70%. Participants from the United Kingdom andAustria, however, scored comparatively low with 41% and35%. Despite the fact that this survey has not included asufficiently high enough number of participants as to comeup with general assumptions, a trend could be discoverednevertheless. Results indicate that French-speakingparticipants seemed to be more aware about Aspartame beforethe project, whereas most other European participants, suchas Austrian, Italian or Spanish have been significantlyless aware of this sweetener. An indication for thisassumption can be provided from a research conducted by theFrench National Institute of Health and Medical Research(INSERM, 2013), which revealed that “switching toartificially-sweetened drinks (Aspartame containingproducts) may not necessarily reduce your diabetes risk –in fact, it might make it worse.” (Johnson, 2013)

In some countries, awareness campaigns, both fromgovernments and media, have impacted consumption levels ofAspartame containing products, such as soft drinks. As seenon the graph, global trends of soft drink consumption varyprofoundly in different countries. Although the United


22 March 2013

States being the leading soft drink consuming countrieswith an average of 170 litres purchased per person (Checket al, 2012), we can see that Aspartame awareness campaignsas well as studies might have changed their consumptionattitude. An example for this was the publication of theRamazzini Foundation in the NY Times that reported researchfindings about the health risks associated to Aspartameintake. (Warner, 2006)

The below given graph clearly depicts the different levelsof sugar/sweetener consumption in correlation with diabetesprevalence among countries that are members of the OECD(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).Despite the fact that data were taken from both sugar andsweetener consumption levels, it interlinks with the above-given assumption of a higher degree of Aspartame awarenessin French speaking countries as opposed to the UK. Aspreviously stated, some countries promote different levelsof risk awareness of sweeteners, which may impact theirnation’s overall consumption level. Nonetheless, there arealso examples that prove the contrary, such as the UnitedStates as leading country in this graph, which has


22 March 2013

undertaken a fair amount of awareness campaigns to informtheir citizens of the dangers of Aspartame.

5. Conclusion


22 March 2013

6. Bibliography

Striegel-Moore, R., Franko, D. Body Image Issues among Girlsand Women. In T. F. Cash & T. Pruzinsky (Eds.), Body Image:A handbook of theory, research, and clinical practice (p.183-191). New York: Guilford Press.

Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Expectancy theory of motivation:motivating altering expectations. International Journal ofManagement, Business and Administration, 15 (1).

Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S., Margaret, K.H.(2011). Consumer Behavior: A European Perspective 4thEdition. Pearson: Edinburgh.

Karanika, Katerina (2013), Motivation and Lifestyle, p13; p18,lecture notes distributed in BEM2016: Consumer Behaviour atExeter University on the 18th of January 2013.


22 March 2013

Markey N C., and Markey M. P. (2005). Relations BetweenBody Image and Dieting Behaviors: An Examination of GenderDifferences. Sex Roles, 53 (7). Available at http://0-web.ebscohost.com.lib.exeter.ac.uk/ehost/detail?sid=6dadd7ff-bb58-4f77-9535-0710b9e27ca5%40sessionmgr13&vid=4&hid=26 (AccessedWednesday 13th of March.)

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Smoking andTobacco Uses “Adult Cigarette Smoking in the United States: CurrentEstimate” Last Update 14 March 2012(http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/)

Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale(2013), Les boissons "light" associées à une augmentationdu risque de diabète de type 2, Available at: http://www.inserm.fr/espace-journalistes/les-boissons-light-associees-a-une-augmentation-du-risque-de-diabete-de-type-2 (Accessed: March 15,2013)

Johnson, Cathy (2013), Are diet soft drinks a healthychoice ?,ABC Health & Wellbeing, New York; Availableat :http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories/2013/02/26/3698744.htm#.UUG3TBm9HeY (Accessed: March 14, 2013)Striegel-Moore, R., Franko, D., Thompson, D., Barton, B.,Schreiber, G. B., Daniels, S.R. (2004). Changes in weightand body image over time in women with eating disorders.International Journal of Eating Disorders 36 (3) p315-327.Available at < http://0-web.ebscohost.com.lib.exeter.ac.uk/ehost/detail?sid=3623e7ab-df49-4eb2-910a-a634f02d5fab%40sessionmgr11&vid=9&hid=26>( Last Accessed Monday 11th ofMarch)Check, Dan ; Dodson, Matt ; Kirk, Chris (2012), Americansdrink more Soda than anyone else, Slate, Washington ;Available at:http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/map_of_the_week/2012/07/map_of_soda_consumption_americans_drink_more_than_anyone_else_.html (Accessed: March 12, 2013)


22 March 2013

Graphs :

Sugar Consumption and Diabetes Prevalence Among OECDcountries and Malaysia:(http://micpohling.wordpress.com/2007/03/20/sugarsweetener-consumption-and-diabetes-prevalence-among-oecd-countries-and-malaysia/)

Global trends: Change in total volume of carbonated softdrinks consumed between 2002 and 2007(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12sweet.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

i http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/04/obesityfacts/

Aspartame case study

Documents