Big Corn wants to change "High Fructose Corn Syrup" to "Corn Sugars"

Cory Doctorow at 4:35 AM Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010

The US Corn Refiners Association has petitioned the FDA for permission to change the name "High Fructose Corn Syrup" to the much more innocuous-sounding "Corn Sugars." This comes as 58% of Americans say they are concerned about HFCS's impact on their health. HFCS is a heavily subsidized industrial byproduct of the corn industry, and is ubiquitous in American processed food -- everything from Rice Krispies to "healthy" granola bars.

HFCS isn't particularly high in fructose, as it turns out -- the name is a hang-over from the 1970s, when it first came into popular use. But even though "Corn Sugars" might be more descriptive, the name-change is clearly a move intended to confuse Americans who have slowly but surely come to reject products with HFCS on the ingredients list (when they can find alternatives that aren't laden with HFCS, that is). Maybe the FDA should approve the move, but require a ten year period when the ingredient is written as "Corn Sugars (formerly High Fructose Corn Syrup)."