The ‘sweet’ relation to pesticides?
Sucralose is an organochloride compound. Many of the derivatives of this type of compound (with covalently bound chlorine atoms) are controversial due to their harmful effects on all forms of life and on the environment. The majority are insecticides, herbicides and pesticides and are not generally packaged in children’s lunch boxes! The synthetic pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT is so harmful to health that it’s now banned for agricultural use most of the world over. Sucralose “is made by selective substitution of sucrose hydroxyl groups by chlorine, resulting in a highly intense (600x) sugarlike sweetness and exceptional stability at both high temperature and low pH”. The sweet taste of the chlorinated sugar is said to have been accidently discovered during a collaborative research program between Tate & Lyle and Queen Elizabeth College of the University of London, when the British sugar company was investigating the use of sucrose as a chemical interm
