Thursday, September 16, 2010

High Fructose Corn Syrup Today...Corn Sugar Tomorrow?

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to allow manufacturers to use the term "corn sugar" instead of the now mandated "high fructose corn syrup" on ingredient lists, which has received a great deal of negative publicity in recent years.

According to CRA, research indicates that consumers are confused by labeling. Although regular sugar and high fructose corn syrup have the same amount of fructose, nearly 58 percent of consumers believe that high fructose corn syrup has more and is a less healthy ingredient than regular sugar.

From a branding standpoint this is an interesting case of a product (in this case an ingredient) having a negative perception based on consumer perceptions - although it really is not as bad as people perceive. 

1 comment:

  1. They are two different things. High fructose corn syrup has a chemical makeup and is derived from corn. They use it because it is cheaper than importing sugar cane. In my mind it is worse because it is not natural like sugar cane, or "table sugar".

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