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Saccharin Safety and Effects on Microbiome Health
Explore the saccharin safety, its potential effects on the microbiome and insulin levels. Discover the amount of saccharin found in Blancodent and what recent research reveals about this artificial sweetener.
SCIENCE
Luigi Cellini
10/8/20265 min read
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SACCHARIN: WHAT THE SCIENCE REALLY SAYS
BlancoDent contains saccharin at a concentration of 0.07%.
It is a very small amount and its function within the formula is simple: to improve the flavour.
But saccharin has been surrounded by questions for decades. Some come from old studies that were subsequently reinterpreted; others are much more recent and concern issues such as the microbiome, the glycaemic response or the possible insulin response to sweet taste.
That is why we prefer not to limit ourselves to saying that "it is safe".
Let us look at what we really know.
HOW MUCH SACCHARIN DOES BLANCODENT CONTAIN?
One bag of BlancoDent contains 50 g of product.
At a concentration of 0.07%, that corresponds approximately to:
35 mg of saccharin in the whole bag.
If one bag allows for around 250 brushings, the amount present in each use is approximately:
0.14 mg per brushing.
And there is also an important difference compared with the consumption of a food or a drink: BlancoDent is used during brushing and is subsequently spat out.
This must be taken into account when interpreting studies in which saccharin is ingested daily and in much higher quantities.
IS SACCHARIN SAFE?
Saccharin is one of the oldest and most studied sweeteners.
For decades there was concern about a possible relationship with cancer, mainly following studies carried out in animals that observed bladder tumours in male rats.
Today we know much more.
In 2024, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) re-evaluated saccharin and its salts, reviewing the available scientific evidence.
EFSA concluded that the tumours historically observed in rats were produced through a mechanism specific to these animals and not relevant to humans.
It also concluded that saccharin does not cause damage to DNA and that its consumption is unlikely to be associated with a higher risk of cancer in humans.
As a result of this re-evaluation, EFSA increased the acceptable daily intake from 5 to 9 mg per kilogram of body weight per day.
For a person of 70 kg, this equates to an acceptable daily intake of 630 mg per day throughout life.
This figure serves to evaluate the safety of dietary exposure. It does not mean, however, that any possible biological effect of saccharin disappears below that level.
And here begins the most interesting part.
IS SACCHARIN REALLY INERT?
For a long time non-nutritive sweeteners were considered practically inert substances from a metabolic point of view.
Recent research has made this idea more nuanced.
A controlled trial published in Cell in 2022 studied 120 healthy adults exposed for two weeks to different non-nutritive sweeteners, including saccharin.
The researchers observed that each sweetener produced different changes in the intestinal and oral microbiome. In the group that received saccharin, modifications to the glycaemic response were also observed.
However, other studies have obtained different results.
In another controlled trial, healthy participants received saccharin for two weeks until reaching the maximum daily intake considered acceptable at that time.
The researchers did not observe significant changes in the composition or diversity of the intestinal microbiome, nor a deterioration in glucose tolerance.
The apparently contradictory results remind us of something important:
the response to sweeteners may depend on the dose, the duration of exposure and possibly on each person's microbiome.
Therefore, the available evidence does not allow us simply to state that:
"saccharin destroys the microbiome".
But nor does it seem correct to assume that all its biological effects are necessarily non-existent.
AND WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MOUTH?
This question is especially relevant for a toothpaste.
Saccharin is not sugar and cariogenic bacteria do not use it in the same way as they use sucrose.
Moreover, various in vitro experiments have observed that saccharin can influence the growth and metabolism of certain oral bacteria.
As far back as studies carried out in the 1980s, inhibitory effects on different oral microorganisms were observed depending on the concentration.
Later research on biofilms has also found important differences between the effects of sugar and those of non-nutritive sweeteners.
This means that saccharin can interact with microorganisms in the mouth.
But an interaction does not necessarily mean a harmful effect.
The oral microbiome is a complex ecosystem made up of numerous species that interact with one another. Reducing this whole question to "good bacteria" and "bad bacteria" would be an excessive simplification.
The really interesting question would be another one:
does a concentration of 0.07%, used during a brief brushing and subsequently spat out, produce any relevant change in the balance of the oral microbiome?
At present we do not know of studies carried out specifically with BlancoDent that would allow this question to be answered.
CAN SWEET TASTE STIMULATE INSULIN WITHOUT SWALLOWING THE SACCHARIN?
This is probably one of the least known and most interesting questions.
Our body can begin to respond to food even before the nutrients reach the intestine.
This is what is known as the cephalic phase of the digestive response.
In a controlled trial published in 2008, healthy volunteers held different solutions in their mouths for 45 seconds and subsequently spat them out, without swallowing them.
The researchers observed a significant increase in the plasma concentration of insulin after oral exposure to both sucrose and saccharin.
The authors interpreted the result as evidence of a possible cephalic insulin response triggered by sweet taste.
It is an especially interesting study in our case because the saccharin did not need to be ingested in order to produce the signal observed.
However, this does not mean that using BlancoDent causes a metabolic alteration.
Other experiments on saccharin and sweet taste receptors have not found significant changes in glucose, insulin or other hormone responses under certain experimental conditions.
The existence, magnitude and physiological relevance of this response continue to be the subject of research.
And there is also a fundamental difference:
the experimental studies were not carried out with approximately 0.14 mg of saccharin contained in a small amount of toothpaste.
Therefore, directly transferring their results to the use of BlancoDent would not be scientifically justified.
TWO DIFFERENT QUESTIONS
When discussing saccharin it is worth separating two issues that are often mixed together.
Is it safe in the authorised amounts?
The available toxicological evidence and the re-evaluation carried out by EFSA in 2024 indicate that it is.
Does that mean that it cannot produce any biological interaction?
Not necessarily.
Research on the microbiome, sweet taste receptors and metabolic responses continues to evolve.
Toxicological safety and the absolute absence of biological effects are not exactly the same question.
Effect of saccharin on growth and acid production of glucose-grown pathogenic and oral bacteria
Personalized microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance
SO WHY DOES BLANCODENT CONTAIN SACCHARIN?
For a very simple reason:
to improve the flavour.
Its concentration is 0.07%, which represents approximately 0.14 mg present in the amount used in an average brushing, taking as a reference around 250 uses per bag.
At the concentrations used in BlancoDent, we currently have no evidence demonstrating a harmful effect on the oral microbiome or on metabolism.
Nor do we wish to turn that absence of evidence into an absolute statement that science has not specifically demonstrated for our formula.
That is why our position is simple:
to state how much it contains, to explain why it is present and to show what the available evidence really says.
Without alarmism.
And without asking science to say more than it really knows.
MAIN SOURCES
EFSA (2024). Re-evaluation of saccharin and its sodium, potassium and calcium salts (E 954). New acceptable daily intake: 9 mg/kg of body weight per day.
Suez J. et al. (2022). Personalized microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance. Cell, 185, 3307–3328.
Serrano J. et al. (2021). High-dose saccharin supplementation does not induce gut microbiota changes or glucose intolerance in healthy humans and mice.
Just T. et al. (2008). Cephalic phase insulin release in healthy humans after taste stimulation? Appetite, 51, 622–627.
Linke H.A., Doyle G.A. (1985). Effect of saccharin on growth and acid production of glucose-grown pathogenic and oral bacteria.
Scientific research on sweeteners and the microbiome continues to evolve. This page will be updated when new relevant evidence allows these questions to be better defined.
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