Food-Info.net> Questions and Answers > Food ingredients > Sugar and sweeteners

What is methanol and is it a problem in consuming aspartame?

Methanol is a natural and harmless by-product of many foods we eat every day. When aspartame is digested in the body, a small amount of methanol is released. The methanol produced by aspartame is identical to the methanol produced in much larger amounts from fruits, vegetables and their juices. In fact, a cup of tomato or apple juice provides about six times more methanol than a cup of an aspartame-sweetened soft drink. The amount of methanol in the human diet is nowhere near the levels that cause toxicity. You would have to drink about more than 100 cans of diet soft drinks (or fruit drinks) daily to reach the toxic level.