Thanks for contributing to this exchange. It's good to hear from somebody"
inside the FDA," even if the association was a past one. You may well be
correct in your suggestion that aspartame + heat -> methanol + DKP. If this
is indeed the case (and here I would suggest that the fate of aspartame in
soft drinks might make a good little research projects in a science course),
I'm surprised that these diet soft drinks do not contain a warning, unless,
of course, the concentrations of the products are not high enough to warrant
this. Your comment that the approval of aspartame was "pushed through" the
approvals process also leads credence to the argument that federal agencies
can succumb to external pressure.
I wonder what temperatures diet soft drinks are exposed to during shipping
and while stored and how much of the decomposition of aspartame takes place
between the soft drink bottler and consumer.
Again, thanks for your comment.
Chuck Vandergraaf