The Future of High Fructose Corn Syrup

In the wake of a study from Princeton University on the health effects of high fructose corn syrup, it seems that the tide may be turning against HFCS… In response to consumer concerns, several major food and beverage companies are switching from HFCS to plain old sugar as their sweetener of choice.

I’ve actually seen this mentioned on a handful of health-related weblogs, but have had a hard time pinning down an original source. Earlier today, however, I ran across an article entitled “Sugar gains favor over corn syrup” from back in March in the Des Moines Register.

Oddly enough, this article has since gone missing, but Google still has a cached version of the article. Because this cached version will likely disappear sometime soon, I’ve decided to capture the text of it here.

Sugar gains favor over corn syrup

by Philip Brasher, Des Moines Register – March 21, 2010

Washington, D.C. — High fructose corn syrup, an Iowa product that sweetens sodas, candy and many foods, is falling on hard times.

Calorie-conscious Americans have been switching from corn-sweetened sodas to diet soft drinks to bottled water sodas for several years. Now, some consumers who aren’t necessarily looking to cut calories apparently are going for products that contain sugar rather than the corn syrup.

Major food and soda companies, including such giants as Pepsico and ConAgra Foods, are switching from high fructose corn syrup to sugar, a more expensive ingredient, in response to consumer concerns about the corn sweetener.

Starting in May, bottles of Hunt’s ketchup sweetened with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup will go on supermarket shelves. Shoppers can’t miss the switch. The front label will read, in large letters: “No high fructose corn syrup.”

“We’re doing it because consumers are looking for shorter, simpler ingredient listings, more familiar ingredients,” said Teresa Paulsen, a spokeswoman for the maker of Hunt’s, ConAgra Foods in Omaha.

She said the company tested the new product with several hundred consumers. “They liked the fact that it was made with sugar, Paulsen said. “They liked the taste. They preferred this recipe to the HFCS recipe.”

PepsiCo, meanwhile, is switching the sweetener in Gatorade sports drinks from high fructose corn syrup to sugar and is using sugar in some niche brands of Pepsi soda. Other brand names switching from the corn sweetener to sugar include Del Monte Light Fruit, Kraft Foods’ Wheat Thins, Oroweat breads, Pillsbury and Snapple, according to the Sugar Association, an industry trade group.

“It seems like there are more food and beverage manufacturers who are starting to listen to consumers who are listening to a sweetener they can recognize,” said Andrew Briscoe, president of the sugar industry group.

Some activists and an occasional study have linked the consumption of high fructose corn syrup to the nation’s obesity problems, but many nutrition specialists say that the body metabolizes both sweeteners in the same way because they are similar chemically.

“There isn’t a shred of evidence that there is a nutritional difference between the two,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a research and advocacy group.

The companies switching to sugar are taking advantage of an “urban myth that high fructose corn syrup is particularly evil, particularly harmful,” he said.

The companies that make the corn product say it’s been smeared unfairly by the sugar industry, which has funded research into the nutritional differences.

“We think it’s important that consumers know there is no nutritional difference between HFCS and sugar,” said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association. High fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch in plants across Iowa and other Midwest states. The leading manufacturers include Cargill Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Use of the sweetener has been slipping for several years as consumers cut high-calorie soft drinks. Under pressure from nutrition advocates, soda companies voluntarily have removed nondiet soft drinks from school vending machines. Per-capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup fell from 64.6 pounds per capita in 2001 to 52.6 pounds in 2008.

But analysts say companies may not go much further in changing their sweeteners, in part because high fructose corn syrup is usually much cheaper than sugar – currently about 40 percent less.

Cost isn’t the only concern. Soft drink makers also have “loyal followings of consumers who like their formulations the way they are today,” said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest.

The companies that make corn sweetener have been running ads to shore up the product’s image, while also looking at other ways to address consumer concerns that it isn’t a natural or healthful product.

In January, the Food and Drug Administration agreed to allow the corn sweetener to be listed simply as “corn syrup” on food and drink labels, but the agency since has decided to review that decision.

Jacobson praised the agency’s reversal, saying that common corn syrup is mostly made up of a single sugar, glucose, while high fructose corn syrup, like table sugar, is a combination of two sugars, glucose and fructose.

Erickson said the food companies that are switching to sugar are often looking to recapture market share they have lost to competitors’ products, but he said there’s little evidence it will work.

ConAgra’s Paulsen doesn’t deny that Hunt’s is looking to improve sales. “We think this is a change that consumers will appreciate.”

Economists at the University of Missouri, which tracks commodity use for Congress, estimate that U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup will fall just below 8 million tons on this year’s corn crop, from 8.2 million tons for 2009, and remain stagnant over the coming decade.

Even though sugar prices are at record highs, “we aren’t seeing any big jump in HFCS consumption this year,” said Pat Westhoff, co-director of the university’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.

What do you think? Are you glad to see old school sugar making a comeback?

Filed under: Health & Fitness
Tags: hfcs, nutrition, obesity, sugar