Major Sugar Companies Suing Over "Natural" Corn Syrup

This week in food industry news, several of the major sugar refining companies joined a lawsuit aimed at corn refiners over the use of the phrase "corn sugar."

Corn refiners had originally asked the FDA to allow them to call their widely used sweetener - high fructose corn syrup -- by the term corn sugar instead. Recent (and scientifically unsupported) claims about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), along with an overall popularity in "natural" products in recent years, have led to lower sales for products featuring HFCS.

The sugar industry wants nothing to do with this. It's likely their concern is that their sales could suffer should corn refiners gain approval and change the name of their product. There is also the possibility that consumers will switch back to corn syrup products, thereby hurting sales for products featuring traditional sugar.

So, is high fructose corn syrup a "natural" product after all?

It is made from natural products, though there is refining involved with its production. Regular corn syrup is made when corn starch is stored in giant vats with natural enzymes that turn the starch into glucose. These sugars are heated and converted to a corn syrup.

High fructose corn syrup requires further refining beyond standard corn syrup. There are extra enzymes added to it, and therefore the ratio of glucose to fructose in HFCS varies. HCFS can feature a 90-10 ratio, a 42-43 ratio, and a 55-45 ratio, depending on the needs of the food manufacturer.

High fructose corn syrup is subsidized as a corn product, leading to cheaper pricing and thus its popularity in recent years. Sugar is taxed as an imported item, which is why substituting sugar for HFCS can be more costly for food manufacturers.

However, sugar companies are enjoying the recent trend away from HFCS to standard sugar. How the lawsuit will play out may very well predict the shape of things to come for them, as well as the corn refining industry.