High Fructose Corn Syrup Changes Name To ‘Corn Sugar’

By on September 14, 2010 in News 11

Who are they kidding? It’s not sugar and it’s not natural! From Fast Company’s Co.Design:

Cast as an evil, oozing harbinger of obesity and diabetes, sales of high fructose corn syrup have seen a downward spiral as companies swap the over-processed sweetener for healthier-sounding ingredients. So what’s the solution for the industry, according to the Corn Refiners Association? Change the name. To “corn sugar.” And presto! What was once a scary sounding goo becomes more natural-sounding, just as sweet and pure as cane sugar.

A new Web site and campaign rebranding HFCS as the innocuous term was launched today in the hopes that they will get FDA approval to change the name on food labeling. Over at CornSugar.com, ads and imagery of a maze mowed through corn fields symbolizes the path of misdirected customers confused by current labeling systems, as quotes from dietitians float helpfully above. (The Corn Refiners Association also own Corn.org and the icky-sounding SweetSurprise.com.)

[A brand-new ad, touting the subtle rebranding]

“This seems to be a last-ditch attempt to try and salvage a product that they know is not good for Americans,” says Curt Ellis, one of the co-producers and stars of the 2007 documentary King Corn, as well as a Food and Society Fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “They have lost some of their biggest customers as more industrial food companies are converting to table sugar or more natural ingredients than that. Companies are reducing the empty calories in their products.” Indeed, Pepsi Throwback, is among the many products from big companies now marketing their use of real sugar…

[continues at Fast Company's Co.Design]

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  • Butter Knife

    Look, much as I dislike the stuff for its deleterious effects on American dietary and foreign policy, I can’t muster the will to be up in arms about this: it’s a completely accurate title, and one more comprehensible to most Americans anyway.

    My understanding was that it was originally labeled as HFCS for the explicit purpose of concealing the fact it is sugar from the burgeoning, if somewhat uninformed, segment of the population actually looking at what is in their food and getting upset about all of the unhealthy sugar in it.

    So at what point do we stop subsidizing the corn industry to manufacture the garbage through both direct payments and irrational trade restrictions (sugar faces steep, potentially NAFTA violating import quotas, and a real reason for the Cuban embargo is to keep their sugar out of the American market)? HFCS simply can’t compete with cane sugar on price without the level of assistance of American taxpayers, and would likely all but disappear from the market within a decade or so without it.

    • HighFructoseJunkie?

      No, It is not an accurate title… I wouldn’t go that far. America is ((((slowly)))) waking up to the fact that the USDA and FDA execs are (almost) ALL former food processing execs and some have even worked back and forth between the two. SO, anyways my point is, whenever something controversial gains ground in the public eye, its too easy for the powers that be to just whitewash something by changing the name. Most people just plain wont get it. Come on you know that.

  • Butter Knife

    Look, much as I dislike the stuff for its deleterious effects on American dietary and foreign policy, I can’t muster the will to be up in arms about this: it’s a completely accurate title, and one more comprehensible to most Americans anyway.

    My understanding was that it was originally labeled as HFCS for the explicit purpose of concealing the fact it is sugar from the burgeoning, if somewhat uninformed, segment of the population actually looking at what is in their food and getting upset about all of the unhealthy sugar in it.

    So at what point do we stop subsidizing the corn industry to manufacture the garbage through both direct payments and irrational trade restrictions (sugar faces steep, potentially NAFTA violating import quotas, and a real reason for the Cuban embargo is to keep their sugar out of the American market)? HFCS simply can’t compete with cane sugar on price without the level of assistance of American taxpayers, and would likely all but disappear from the market within a decade or so without it.

  • rtb61

    Sugar is an informal term for a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar.
    All the following are sugars galactose, fructose, sucrose, xylose, ribose and all of them have different chemical properties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosaccharide and can not be called the same except be lying scum sucking corporate psychopath executives willing to kill millions to earn millions.
    They lie, you die, it is about timed corporate executives faced criminal when people die as a result of their lies.

  • Anonymous

    Sugar is an informal term for a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar.
    All the following are sugars galactose, fructose, sucrose, xylose, ribose and all of them have different chemical properties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosaccharide and can not be called the same except be lying scum sucking corporate psychopath executives willing to kill millions to earn millions.
    They lie, you die, it is about timed corporate executives faced criminal when people die as a result of their lies.

  • $927230

    I miss George Carlin.

  • Anonymous

    I miss George Carlin.

  • HighFructoseJunkie?

    No, It is not an accurate title… I wouldn’t go that far. America is ((((slowly)))) waking up to the fact that the USDA and FDA execs are (almost) ALL former food processing execs and some have even worked back and forth between the two. SO, anyways my point is, whenever something controversial gains ground in the public eye, its too easy for the powers that be to just whitewash something by changing the name. Most people just plain wont get it. Come on you know that.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    If we keep up this trend of renaming everything to be more appealing…inevitably we’ll reach a point where every product in the world will have just one name…something like :

    “HOLY SHIT ITS SO FUCKIN AWESOME IT’LL BLOW YOUR FREAKING MIND WITH ITS INCREDIBLE AWESOMENESS!!! WHOOOOO!!!”

    Of course…packaging for smaller objects may have to be adjusted….but I am pretty sure they’ll use all caps…possibly even touch activated tiny speakers that have a person screaming that phrase whenever you pick up the item in question.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    If we keep up this trend of renaming everything to be more appealing…inevitably we’ll reach a point where every product in the world will have just one name…something like :

    “HOLY SHIT ITS SO FUCKIN AWESOME IT’LL BLOW YOUR FREAKING MIND WITH ITS INCREDIBLE AWESOMENESS!!! WHOOOOO!!!”

    Of course…packaging for smaller objects may have to be adjusted….but I am pretty sure they’ll use all caps…possibly even touch activated tiny speakers that have a person screaming that phrase whenever you pick up the item in question.

  • http://www.centralcontracts.com www.centralcontracts.com

    I love that the picture for this was angry Klingons.