Food Issues: Corn vs. Sugar Smackdown

Many of us at Healthy Child Healthy World are a wee bit obsessed with Citizens For Health's new FoodIdentityTheft.com website. How could you not be riveted to breaking food industry news? (Okay, we're food geeks.)

Anyhoo, last week the site reported that the Corn Refiners Association -- a high fructose corn syrup manufacturers industry group -- has petitioned the FDA for a name change. The CRA is so concerned by the negative public image of high fructose corn syrup that they now want to call it "corn sugar" or just plain "sugar."

Huh?

Apparently, this isn't a new story. According to Food Identity Theft, the CRA began a $50 million marketing campaign in 2008 to re-label high fructose corn syrup. The new news is that they are now being sued by a group of sugar farmers and refiners who are worried the name change would confuse consumers and hurt the sugar industry.

It's a corn vs. sugar smackdown.

So why do we need a website to track this kind of news? It goes way beyond sugar. Take blueberries, for example. Food Identity Theft inspected the labels of Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Blueberry Muffin Cereal, Kellogg's Special K Blueberry Cereal, General Mill's Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal, Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix and Smucker's Snack 'n Waffles Blueberry. Despite their names, the site found that the only blueberries in the mix are "blueberry flavored crunchelets" (sugar and blue #2 lake food dye) and "blueberry bits" (red #40 lake and blue #2 lake food dye), among other pseudo-berry flavors.

Franken-berries, yes. Blueberries, not so much.

A similar scandal was exposed by the National Consumers League earlier this year. Labels for Del Monte, Contadina and Classico products, among others, which claimed to contain "California vine-ripened tomatoes," "select 100% California tomatoes" or "only the finest tomatoes" were found by the National Consumers League to be made from reconstituted industrial tomato concentrate.

In April, the NCL urged the FDA to warn the food industry that "claims implying that products are made from fresh ingredients when they are actually made from concentrate are deceptive under federal law," and reiterated its 2009 request to clearly label "from concentrate" on packaging.

Deceptions concerning blueberries and tomatoes might seem trivial, but they represent billions of dollars to big agricultural companies. And stories like these are yet another reason why Healthy Child Healthy World advocates for preparing fresh foods whenever possible. Because there's no mislabeling a USDA Certified Organic tomato or blueberry -- that, my friends, would be illegal.

Speaking of serious food issues, have you signed our petition urging the FDA to label GMOs, yet? We only have 500 signatures and our goal is 5,000. Please sign -- and tell a friend!

www.healthychild.org

 

Comments

[Italian-in-NY]

02:17 PM on 10/19/2011

Same reason why the USDA food pyramid is upside down (meat, dairy, eggs and fats should be at the bottom and carbs at the very top).

[vamborools714]

02:09 PM on 10/19/2011

this is a war between sugar manufacturers. you body recognizes sugar as sugar. your body doesnt care wich plant it came from. its all the same.

[Karl Wilder]

01:21 PM on 10/19/2011

The best way to oppose this is to buy only food that is recognizable as food. Blueberries as blueberries and tomatoes as tomatoes.

[hemipwr54]

12:21 PM on 10/19/2011

HFC is a product that should be banned from human consumption . With corn being used as Ethanol production and along with HFC the corn plant could use a break , cutting HFC would at least provide as small relief to it's consumption .
GMO petition signed , thanks for alerting .

[Msquad99]

11:33 AM on 10/19/2011

This is easily understood. Sugar cane is not grown in massive amounts in this country. Corn is. Sugar is one of the base commodities in nearly all processed food. Processed food has become a corner stone of Food Inc. in America. Convert corn to a form of sugar had to take place as a component of food industry growth and consolidation.

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Enjoy this documentary. It all gets explained.

[PoodleMom206]

11:08 AM on 10/19/2011

Why is it I can buy Coca-Cola from Mexico, or even Ghana, and it's made with real sugar, when the good old U.S. of A Coca-Cola contains HFCS? Lobbying. Big argi-business should have to follow the same rules they have forced onto the organic growers. We should all be very scared of the people who control our food supply. They have consolodated their power into a few huge corporations only in it for the money.

[joeomar]

10:03 AM on 10/19/2011

Based on these examples it appears this website should be called "website for ignorant naive consumers". Regarding the blueberry "scandal" - who in their right minds would actually think these products contained real blueberries? The food/chemistry industry hasn't used real fruit ingredients in products like these in decades. Or the issue about the "from concentrate" labeling: I would be absolutely shocked to find out, for example, that the apple juice being sold in stores was from a concentrate, since I assume as a matter of course that it consists entirely of chemically-flavored sugar water. People, if you need to be TOLD that "Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix" doesn't actually contain blueberries then you are way too gullible and ignorant to be a consumer in this day and age.

[brokenleoheart]

09:54 AM on 10/19/2011

i honestly don't think it matters. everything in moderation.

[Corcoran Jacque]

09:23 AM on 10/19/2011

Mandate truth in advertising and vote for nothing less. If you are unsure when reading it... make the decision to make it fresh. I found 1 lb of fresh tomatoes at the .99 cent store they were fresh and ready to eat. and a pint of fresh blueberrys for .99 cents too. the later lasted a whole week for cereal and yogurt. still working my way through the tomatoes refrig after 4 days and they last another few. regarding the sugar..I have relatives who call it evil they are probably correct. I use way too much I think it is best to measure and read...just being aware helps.

[Marsha Petroff]

08:56 AM on 10/19/2011

We need to get back to our roots when it becomes doing certain things or our eating habits. not everything in the past was bad and not everything in the future is good. Even if it is a small amount of food we grow our own or ceratin plants for what we put in our mouth. Also, filter your water and try not to drunk in public.

[lionfight]

08:49 AM on 10/19/2011

It would be best to warn people not to eat or buy foods from stores that sell mass produced, big Corp. grown, chemically treated etc. foods and begin to grow their own on the back porch.......funny, when I grew up we used to killed a hog and skin it without contamination from salmonella or e.Coli...We always kept the insides (to be polite) seperated from the meat. We never ground up all there was together...that equals contamination - just like the big boys do everyday.......ever see a big slaughter house? Wow - go see one....you will not eat meat again.

[Brenda Orr]

08:40 AM on 10/19/2011

40 years ago when I was a child, the labels on the food for the cows used this same tactic. When the government finally passed a law to remove certain ingredients, then the chemical companies changed one molecule and put it right back in... then 10-20 years later, that chemical is banned, and the greed continues. As long a people are ignorant to what is happening, then they can get away with it.

[dterraman]

06:43 AM on 10/19/2011

you are as the food you eat....pay attention....just because it tastes good, means nothing

[Frederick wade]

06:40 AM on 10/19/2011

I don't think we should regulate them at all, they seem to be very honest and trustworthy .

[c-tom]

02:24 AM on 10/19/2011

How would corn sugar make anyone believe it was better for you? Wouldn't it make some people more aware of the added calories? Lots of people associate sugar with calories who have no idea what High Fructose Corn Syrup is.