Cyclamic acid and its Na and Ca salts (E952)

Cyclamic acid and its Na and Ca salts are the sweeteners the food industry lists as E952. In our table they are high risk: they take 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100).

What Cyclamic acid and its Na and Ca salts do to a score

A packaged food's additive subscore starts at 100 and loses points for each additive on the label; that subscore is a third of the final score. Cyclamic acid and its Na and Ca salts take 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). Scan the pack in Sito and the score you get is the one for your own child's age, with this additive named in the reasons. How we score has the whole method.

What the sources found

Every classification in our table comes from the citations below, and nothing else. Each finding is our one-line summary of what the source concluded, with the source and reference beside it.

• FDA 21 CFR 189.135 (govinfo CFR-2024-title21-vol3-sec189-135); order at 34 FR 17063, 1969-10-21
  Food containing any added or detectable level of cyclamate is deemed adulterated in the US; the prohibition covers cyclohexane sulfamic acid and its calcium, sodium, magnesium and potassium salts.
• EFSA Call for data on genotoxicity data on sweeteners, 2021-06-30 (efsa.europa.eu/en/call/call-data-genotoxicity-data-sweeteners)
  Cyclamates (E 952 i, ii, iii) are named as requiring in vivo follow-up because of POSITIVE in vitro genotoxicity results, plus testing of metabolites — an open, unresolved genotoxicity question, with no re-evaluation opinion published.
• EFSA European Commission amended proposal COM(2003) 277 final amending Directive 94/35/EC on sweeteners (EUR-Lex CELEX 52003PC0277)
  Following the SCF opinion revising the cyclamate ADI (7 mg/kg bw/day, driven by cyclohexylamine toxicity), the Commission proposed cutting maximum permitted levels in soft drinks because 'there are indications that the ADI could be exceeded', soft drinks being a dominant intake route; levels were ultimately reduced to 250 mg/l.

Why this class

IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or formally being phased out for food use by the EU, by the US FDA, or under a US state law.

Our confidence in this row's classification is medium. Medium or low does not mean the evidence is weak; it means something about the row is still being pinned down, usually a regulatory status confirmed from one source rather than two.

Questions parents ask

Are Cyclamic acid and its Na and Ca salts (E952) safe for kids?

High risk. In Sito it takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). The finding we rely on: Food containing any added or detectable level of cyclamate is deemed adulterated in the US; the prohibition covers cyclohexane sulfamic acid and its calcium, sodium, magnesium and potassium salts (FDA, 21 CFR 189.135 (govinfo CFR-2024-title21-vol3-sec189-135); order at 34 FR 17063, 1969-10-21).

What is E952?

E952 is the E number for Cyclamic acid and its Na and Ca salts, which our table lists as a sweetener. Open Food Facts tags it en:e952.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E952 in our table, then the closest sweeteners by number.

• Acesulfame K (E950), no risk identified
• Aspartame (E951), moderate risk
• Isomalt (E953), moderate risk
• Saccharin and its salts (E954), moderate risk
• Sucralose (E955), low risk
• Steviol glycosides (E960), low risk, flagged for young children