ALSOFOUNDINErythritol (Sugar alcohol)
New Evidence · 2023Twenty years as the 'safe' sugar alcohol — until the 2023 clotting study. Also listed on labels as E968, Sugar alcohol, Polyol.
E-number: E968
What it is
A sugar alcohol about 70% as sweet as sugar with nearly no calories, occurring naturally in small amounts in fruit and fermented foods. Commercially it's fermented from corn glucose. If you use stevia or monk fruit, you're probably eating mostly this — it's the bulking agent that makes those blends measurable.
Why it's in food
It has bulk like sugar, no meaningful blood-sugar effect, and far less digestive upset than sorbitol or maltitol. For years it was the sugar alcohol with no downside, which is exactly how it ended up inside almost every 'natural' sweetener blend.
US vs EU status
United States
GRAS, with no restrictions and no FDA action. The reason its stamp changed is a February 2023 Cleveland Clinic study published in Nature Medicine: higher blood erythritol levels tracked with heart attacks and strokes, and follow-up laboratory and human work showed erythritol enhancing platelet activity — the mechanism behind clot formation. Later work has reinforced the platelet findings. The research is recent, contested, and unresolved, and no regulator has moved.
European Union
Permitted as E968 since 2006. Europe's regulator re-evaluated it in 2023 with its focus on gastrointestinal thresholds — sugar alcohols in the EU already require the 'excessive consumption may produce laxative effects' warning above certain levels. The cardiovascular question arrived essentially alongside that review and remains under scientific discussion rather than regulatory action on either continent.
Common products
- Stevia and monk fruit blends — usually the main ingredient by weight
- Keto and low-carb desserts, bars, and ice creams
- Sugar-free chocolate and candy
- 'Zero sugar' drinks and protein products
- Sugar-free gum and mints
- Naturally, in small amounts: grapes, melons, pears
Cleaner swaps
- Pure stevia or monk fruit extract with no bulking agent
- Allulose
- Small amounts of real sugar
Case note
Erythritol spent two decades as the sugar alcohol with no asterisk — and it earned that on digestion, which was the only question being asked. Then a 2023 study measured something else entirely. This is the newest open file on the board, and it's the clearest reminder that 'no known problems' often means 'no one has checked that yet.'
FAQ
Does erythritol cause heart attacks and strokes?
Not established — and worth taking seriously. The 2023 study found an association between high blood erythritol and cardiovascular events, plus a plausible mechanism: increased platelet clotting. Association isn't causation, blood levels can also rise from the body's own production, and the participants were already higher-risk. But a proposed mechanism plus a human signal is more evidence than most sweeteners on this board have ever generated.
Is erythritol in my stevia or monk fruit sweetener?
Usually, and usually as the dominant ingredient. Pure stevia and monk fruit extracts are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, so they're diluted with a bulking agent to be spoonable — erythritol is the standard choice. A package fronted with a plant name can be mostly a sugar alcohol by weight. Read the ingredient order.
What about xylitol?
The same research group published comparable findings for xylitol in 2024 — an association with cardiovascular events and enhanced platelet activity. It's the same open question spreading across the sugar alcohol category rather than a single-ingredient problem. Separately and unrelated to humans: xylitol is genuinely toxic to dogs.
Why did it look so safe for twenty years?
Because the old questions were about digestion, and erythritol passed those easily — it's absorbed in the small intestine rather than fermented in the colon, so it causes far less bloating than its peers. It cleared the test everyone was giving. Nobody was measuring platelets until 2023.
How the FDA decides what reaches your table and your medicine cabinet — and how it learned to decide.
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