It is fairly well known how Aspartame was approved in the US. Searle, the maker of the controversial sweetener that is composed of two amino-acids and a binding molecule of methanol, had asked the FDA for approval but failed for 15 years to convince the experts that the sweetener was innocuous. The whole timeline is here.

Ban Nutra Sweet - Image credit: Spirit of Maat

When Donald Rumsfeld became the CEO of Searle, he promised to turn the situation around and had the application filed again. Indeed, when Reagan took office as President of the US, Searle's Rumsfeld "called in his political markers" and engineered an override of the scientific opinion.

On July 18, 1981 aspartame was approved for use dry foods by FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr. overruling the Public Board of Inquiry and ignoring the law...

After the US, it was the turn of the UK to give approval to the sweetener. According to Betty Martini (www.wnho.net and www.dorway.com), long time campaigner for eliminating the toxic sweetener from the market,

... no studies were ever done in the UK. Searle knew if they found out the FDA had tried to have them indicted for fraud they would never get it approved in other countries. So they made a business deal with Paul Turner of Food Standards. He approved it without anyone knowing. Then Parliament had a big blow out but did not rescind the order. Once approved here it was then rubberstamped around the world. Aspartame was never proven safe, and can't be. This is why the manufacturers have threatened researchers, like the VP of Searle when he threatened Dr. Richard Wurtman if he did studies on aspartame and seizures his research funds would be rejected. They were. Today MIT receives research funds but Dr. Wurtman no longer speaks out against aspartame. This is what goes on to keep poisons on the market.

With the US and the UK "in the bag", Searle had no trouble adding other countries to the list and extending the sales of its sweetener around the world. Health authorities do not tend to question the decisions of the US FDA and the UK Food Standards agency ... the few independent studies that were done after the approval, were effectively discredited. This happened as recently as last year, with a large study showing cancers and leukemias in aspartame-fed rats by the Italian Ramazzini Cancer Research Institute.

The scandal around the UK approval of aspartame is documented in a 1984 article in The Guardian:

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February 13, 1984, The Guardian

CHARITY LINKED TO MAKERS OF SUSPECT DRUG - ASPARTAME CONTROVERSY
by Andrew Veltch
Medical Correspondent (front page)