False Splenda advertising infuriates sugar makers who believe that the popular sugar replacement is not natural and made with toxic chemicals such as chlorine.

The Sugar Association believes Splenda’s advertising is misleading and is continuing its efforts to have it removed from the marketplace.

"Bottom line, Splenda is made with a chloro-hydrocarbon sucralose, and bulking agents. The final product does not contain sugar. It’s not natural," Sugar Association President Andy Briscoe told reporters.

The Sugar Association has filed a lawsuit in California against the makers of Splenda and sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission outlining the deceptive practices by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Nutritionals.

However, Splenda insists that the sweetening ingredient, sucralose, is made through a patented, multi-step process that starts with sugar and converts it to a no calorie, non-carbohydrate sweetener suitable even for pregnant women, children and people with diabetes.

"Recent clinical data suggests that Splenda No Calorie Sweetener can be a helpful tool for children and families to use as part of a program to reduce calories and increase physical activity, in order to prevent additional weight gain in overweight children," the company said in a statement.

The battle between sugar giants is not sweet at all. Splenda has also slapped sugar makers with a lawsuit charging the Sugar Association with false advertising designed to mislead consumers about the safety of Splenda. The Sugar Association has been seeking to boost sales of sugar by spreading false and misleading information about Splenda's artificial sweeteners, the statement says.

According to the Food and Drug Administration and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, sucralose is safe for everyone to consume.

Splenda claims that there were 110 trials done before receiving the FDA approval. However, in 2005, only six human trials have been conducted on Splenda. The other 100 were done on animals. Of these six trials, only two of the trials were completed and published before the FDA approved sucralose for human consumption. The two published trials had a grand total of 36 total human subjects. The longest trial at this time had lasted only four days.

There have been no long-term human toxicity studies published until after the FDA approved sucralose for human consumption. No studies have ever been done on children or pregnant women.