International Life Sciences Institute

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Food Portal

The International Life Sciences Insitute (ILSI) is a non-profit international organization founded in 1978 to address food safety, nutrition, and toxicology issues. It is supported by government funding, its own endowment, and also donations from its membership, comprised of hundreds of food and beverage corporations worldwide.^[1] Headquartered in Washington, DC, the insitute addresses global issues such as obesity, biotechnology, functional foods, and food safety using sound science. It has fourteen separate offices worldwide and four additional research centers.

The North American chapter of the ILSI annually issues the Babcock-Hart Award to the Institute of Food Technologists.

[edit] Aspartame controversey

Its close ties with the food industry was raised as a cause for concern in response to the European Food Safety Authority's assessment of a study by the European Ramazzini Foundation. The study reported harmful effects of the artificial sweetner Aspartame. The conclusions of the study were, however, dismissed by the EFSA. The European Ramazzini Foundation responded by calling the EFSA's position bizzare, and by noting that the advisery panel's chair, Dr. Susan Barlow, was also a member of The International Life Sciences Institute. The European Ramazzini Foundation directly questioned the International Life Sciences Institute's objectivity in the matter given its sponsorship from the food industry. (For more information on this event, see the article Aspartame controversy)