National Corn Growers Association

Corn Sugar

A Sugar is a Sugar

A petition before the Food and Drug Administration to allow manufacturers the option of using the term ‘corn sugar’ as an alternative name for high fructose corn syrup helps bring clarity to the hot-button issue and emphasize the natural similarity between HFCS and sugar.

Click here for NCGA's Dec. 15, 2010, letter to the FDA supporting the petition.

Click here to post comments to the FDA docket in support of the corn sugar petition.

Contrary to widespread consumer belief, high fructose corn syrup is not higher in fructose than other commonly used nutritive sweeteners, including table sugar, honey and fruit juice concentrates. Like table sugar, it is roughly half glucose and half fructose and is metabolized by the body in the same way as regular table sugar. In fact, the high fructose corn syrup used in many foods, including baked goods, is lower in fructose than table sugar.

Independent research demonstrates that the current labeling confuses American consumers. For example, nearly 58 percent of respondents believed high fructose corn syrup has more fructose than other table sugars when high fructose corn syrup and table sugar actually contain approximately the same amount of fructose.

The Corn Refiners Association made its request in light of a continuous series of inexact scientific reports and inaccurate media accounts mischaracterizing the health and nutritional value of HFCS.

In a December 2008 report, the American Dietetic Association confirmed that high fructose corn syrup is “nutritionally equivalent to sucrose (table sugar)” and that the sweeteners contain the same number of calories per gram. The ADA found that “once absorbed into the bloodstream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable.”

By allowing HFCS the same naming convention as other processed sweeteners such as cane and beet sugar, the FDA will allow consumers to make informed choices based in strong, credible science. The original name was created simply to differentiate the product from regular corn syrup, not to differentiate it from other sweeteners.

For more information, visit these sites provided by the Corn Refiners Association: