REGULATION: The Sour Taste of a Sweetener Ban

Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took steps two weeks ago to ban it on questionable anticancer grounds, saccharin suddenly has more friends than an Irish bartender on St. Patrick's Day. Millions of skeptical Americans rushed to supermarkets last week to stock up on thousands of saccharin-sweetened products—diet soft drinks, canned fruits, desserts—before the FDA's ban goes into effect, which might happen on July 1. "We had our shelves almost cleaned off," said a Denver grocer, Ross McCotter. Said Houston Supermarket Owner John T. Butera: "A man called this morning...