Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Brands Quietly, Slowly Switching from High Fructose Corn Syrup


From AdAge:

Bowing to consumer demands, major brands are removing high-fructose corn syrup from some of their products in favor of sugar. Few, however, are shouting it from the rooftops as it would cast a shadow on those products that still contain HFCS.

Hunt's ketchup, Gatorade and Wheat Thins are all permanently ditching corn syrup for sugar. Heinz has created a sugar-sweetened version of its iconic ketchup, while Pepsi and Mtn Dew launched limited-time, sugar-sweetened versions of their colas. But with all of these reformulations, only Pepsi and Mtn Dew have made any noise to date.

Marketers and industry experts agree that the shift has been brought on primarily by consumers, who have begun to question the use of HFCS in food and beverage products, as they gravitate toward what they consider to be more natural products.

Most manufacturers switched to HFCS in the 1970s and 1980s, as corn subsidies made the sweetener extremely cheap. However, increased ethanol production in recent years has boosted the price of corn, and consequently corn sweeteners.


As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I'm quite passionate about my soft drinks, and I've also come to think that HFCS is the devil. In fact, while I'm trying to limit my soft drink intake, I've gone almost exclusively to sugar-sweetened sodas when I do drink them (thanks to Kristi and the kids for bringing me a Mexican Coke today with lunch). And I'm still waiting for Pepsi to quit toying with us and just offer Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback as permanent products.

This is a start, at least.

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