Aspartame is used in cold foods and soft drinks even though it is roughly 100 times as sweet as cane sugar and can pose a health hazard because:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → It is unstable at cooking temperature
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that breaks down on heating, so it loses its sweetness at cooking temperature and its use is limited to cold foods and soft drinks.
Why the other options are incorrect
Option (1) It is stable at cooking temperature — Incorrect. This is the opposite of the fact; a heat-stable sweetener such as sucralose can be used in cooking.
Option (2) It is a monomer — Incorrect. Whether a compound is a monomer has nothing to do with where it can be used; aspartame is a small dipeptide ester, not a polymer unit.
Option (3) It is bitter in taste — Incorrect. Aspartame is intensely sweet, which is why it is used at all.
Note: This question is from the pre-rationalised NCERT book (2022-23). The topic is not there in the latest NCERT book (2026-27), and it is also out of the CUET 2026 syllabus.
NCERT (Pre-rationalised edition, 2022-23):
Artificial Sweetening Agents – …
