Benjamin Eisenstadt; Developed Sweet ‘N Low

Benjamin Eisenstadt, 89, who accustomed diners to individual sugar packets and then introduced pink-wrapped Sweet ‘N Low. A New York- born lawyer, Eisenstadt converted his failing Cumberland Cafeteria in Brooklyn into a tea bag manufacturing plant after World War II. When that also failed, he conceived the idea of supplying sugar in tiny packets. Unfortunately, large sugar companies immediately copied the innovation. Eisenstadt finally came into his own in 1957 at the outset of the diet craze when he reformulated saccharine, which had been around since the 19th century, as a cheap sugar substitute. He named the new product after his favorite song, whose title was taken from a Tennyson poem. The new product successfully survived the removal of cancer-causing cyclamate, the discovery that even saccharine could cause cancer, and the advent of aspartame, or Equal, in competitive blue packets. Sweet’n Low is now manufactured in six countries and sold in 30 nations to about 30 million customers. Eisenstadt became a major philanthropist, contributing millions to the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. On April 8 in New York of complications from bypass surgery.