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EFSA Keeps Current Sucralose Uses Safe but Flags High-Heat Baking Uncertainty
EFSA has reaffirmed the safety of sucralose in its current authorised uses, while calling for further scrutiny of prolonged high-temperature cooking and expanded bakery applications.
On 17 February 2026, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published an assessment that keeps the current authorised uses of sucralose in the safe column, while leaving an important question open for high-heat cooking. The authority confirmed that consumers’ current exposure remains below the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), but it could not confirm the safety of extending sucralose into additional fine bakery uses.
The distinction matters in an everyday kitchen. EFSA’s announcement is not a general warning against every food or drink containing E 955. It is a scientific assessment of authorised uses and a proposed extension, with particular attention to what may happen when sucralose is exposed to high temperatures for long periods.
What EFSA confirmed
EFSA’s experts concluded that sucralose, also known as E 955, continues to be safe for consumers when used in the ways currently authorised as a food additive. They confirmed an ADI of 15 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day and said current consumer exposure remains below that level. The ADI is a long-term exposure reference used in the assessment; it is not a recommended amount to consume and it does not turn a label into a personal dietary target.
Sucralose is an intensely sweet additive, described by EFSA as around 600 times sweeter than sugar. It is authorised in a range of reduced-sugar and sugar-free foods and beverages. That means the practical starting point for shoppers is still the ingredient list: E 955 identifies sucralose, while the presence of the additive alone does not tell you that a product falls within the high-temperature use that EFSA examined.
Why baking is the open question
The same assessment considered a request to allow sucralose in more fine bakery wares. EFSA says the existing authorisation already covers wafer paper, cones and wafers for ice cream; the request went beyond those categories. The experts could not reach the same safety conclusion for the additional uses because some industrial processes could involve prolonged high temperatures.
EFSA also referred to a recent study indicating that, under prolonged high-temperature exposure, chlorine can migrate from sucralose and potentially contribute to the formation of chlorinated compounds. The health effects of those compounds are not known. This does not establish that every cake or baked recipe containing sucralose is dangerous. It does establish that the available evidence was not sufficient for EFSA to confirm the proposed extension.
The authority highlighted a further complication for home cooks: temperature, cooking time and the amount of sweetener can vary widely in domestic kitchens. On that basis, EFSA said the possible formation of chlorinated compounds during homemade products requiring high heat, such as baking and frying with sucralose, cannot be excluded. It recommended that the European Commission consider this domestic-cooking question as part of the follow-up.
What the announcement means today
For now, the safest reading is a narrow one. Current authorised uses remain covered by EFSA’s conclusion, while the proposed expansion into additional high-heat bakery applications remains unresolved. The announcement does not provide a new home-cooking temperature limit, a validated recipe method or a blanket clearance for using sucralose in prolonged high-heat cooking.
If you are checking a packaged food, read the ingredient list and follow the product’s own preparation instructions. Do not treat the EFSA assessment as a reason to discard every product containing E 955, but do not treat the conclusion on current authorised uses as proof that every possible high-temperature recipe has been assessed either. Those are different questions, and keeping them separate avoids both unnecessary alarm and overconfident reassurance.
For cooks experimenting with reduced-sugar recipes, the unresolved point is therefore not whether sucralose is authorised at all. It is whether particular combinations of heat, time and quantity could lead to the formation of compounds that have not yet been characterised well enough for a safety conclusion. EFSA has not supplied a universal domestic threshold, so a recipe-specific safety claim would go beyond the announcement.
What happens next
EFSA says the European Commission and Member States will discuss the follow-up to the assessment. No further timetable or new domestic rule is given in the announcement. Until that discussion produces additional guidance, consumers can use the current authorisation status as context, check labels when they need to identify E 955, and avoid reading the high-heat finding as either a recall or a clean bill of health for every future use.
The useful takeaway is precise rather than dramatic: EFSA has reaffirmed the safety of sucralose in its current authorised applications, while asking regulators to examine what prolonged high heat may mean for expanded bakery uses and some homemade preparations. That leaves a clear line for today’s kitchen: follow the label, distinguish authorised uses from proposed ones, and wait for official follow-up before drawing broader conclusions.
Sources
- Official source 1
- https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/efsa-finds-sucralose-safe-when-used-currently-authorised-cannot-confirm-safety-extending-its