International Life Sciences Institute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The International Life Sciences Institute (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 institute 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.

According to Sourcewatch.org, ILSI is also involved in the global food manufacturing industry, but it also includes operations involved with agriculture and genetic modification; pesticides and pharmaceuticals; confectionery; and even with such dubious consumables as cigarettes. This imbalance led, eventually, to the World Health Organization (WHO) banning the organisation from direct involvement with the WHO and other related agencies.

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

[edit] Aspartame controversy

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 sweetener Aspartame. The conclusions of the study were, however, dismissed by the EFSA. The European Ramazzini Foundation responded by calling the EFSA's position bizarre, and by noting that the advisory 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 Institutes's objectivity in the matter given its sponsorship from the food industry. (For more information on this event, see the article Aspartame controversy)