Corn Syrup Makers Denied Use of Term ‘Corn Sugar’ in Ads
May 30, 2012 by uncoverthenews
Filed under Food Watch
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), Cargill Inc. and other makers of high-fructose corn syrup can’t label the product “corn sugar” in advertisements, U.S. regulators said.
“Use of the term ‘sugar’ to describe HCFS, a product that is a syrup, would not accurately identify or describe the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties,” Michael Landa, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said today in a letter denying the industry’s petition. Regulations permit use of the term “sugar” only to describe “solid, dried and crystallized” foods, he said.
U.S. Sugar Corp. and other sugar processors sued corn syrup makers in federal court to stop an advertising campaign claiming “your body can’t tell the difference” between granular sugar, or sucrose, and corn syrup. The Corn Refiners Association, representing syrup producers, asked the FDA in September 2010 to approve “corn sugar” as a term for corn syrup.
The FDA denied the industry’s petition on “narrow, technical grounds,” Audrae Erickson, the president of the Corn Refiners Association, said in a statement.
