Corn Refiners Petition FDA for Alternate Name To Eliminate Consumer Confusion

Audrae Erickson, President of the Corn Refiners Association

In an effort to help clarify the labeling of food products for consumers, the Corn Refiners Association today petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow manufacturers the option of using corn sugar as an alternative name for high fructose corn syrup.

Independent research demonstrates that the current name, high fructose, is confusing American consumers, leading them to believe that high fructose corn syrup has more fructose that table sugar. Nearly 58 percent of survey respondents believed this to be the case, when in fact, high fructose corn syrup is not high in fructose compared with 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 addition to confusion over the sugar itself, a continuing series of inexact scientific reports and inaccurate media accounts about high fructose corn syrup and matters of health and nutrition have increased consumer uncertainty leading manufacturers to pull the ingredient from their products, and various media to even blamed it for single-handedly causing the rise in Type 2 diabetes and the obesity epidemic!

Corn sugar or high fructose corn syrup has been used for more than 40 years to enhance flavors in foods and beverages and maintain freshness. In this interview, Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, can explain to your listeners what high fructose corn syrup is and what it isnt why the CRA is asking for this alternate name and how important it is to understand how sugar is identified on product labels.

About the talent: Audrae Erickson is president of the Corn Refiners Association (CRA). CRA is the national trade association representing the corn refining (wet milling) industry of the United States. CRA and its predecessors have served this important segment of American agribusiness since 1931. Corn refiners manufacture sweeteners, ethanol, starch, bioproducts, corn oil, and feed products from corn components such as starch, oil, protein and fiber.