Consumers sour on sugars

Sarah Hughes-Deeney peered down at the label on the plastic iced tea bottle.

Bingo.

No added sweeteners. Most important, no high fructose corn syrup.

Hughes-Deeney, 30, who was shopping in Omaha at Whole Foods with her husband, John Deeney, and two young children, tries to avoid high fructose corn syrup and other added sweeteners when picking food and beverages.

Especially when it comes to products for her kids, ages 3 and 2.

“It's extra sugar we don't need,” she said. “You don't need food with all the added sugars. It comes naturally in things like fruit, where you get vitamins as well.”

Hughes-Deeney isn't the only one who feels that way.

The country is consuming less added sugars overall and turning up its nose at high fructose corn syrup in particular. Estimated per capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup hit its peak around 1999, when Americans ate and drank about 45 pounds of it per person, according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's economic research service.

Since then, the annual number has been falling, and dipped to a little less than 36 pounds per person in 2009.

“It does appear that we are turning away from added sugars altogether, and that's especially true of the high fructose corn syrup,” said Stephen Haley, an agricultural economist with the research service.

The change in consumer sentiment has Omaha-based ConAgra Foods changing recipes and labels for some products and corn farmers in Nebraska and Iowa working to change what they say are misperceptions about corn syrup sweetener.

The debate has pitted ConAgra, fighting for consumer approval, against farmers, battling to keep the corn sweetener market strong for the long term.

The rising anti-sweetener sentiment has been spurred by a slew of studies, articles and books that highlight the health concerns of too much sugar consumption, as well as what seems to be a never-ending list of foods that now contain the corn sweetener.

Well-publicized research also has suggested that high fructose corn syrup poses an even greater threat of obesity and other health problems than regular table sugar.

Other experts say the evidence is still mixed. They see little difference between the sweeteners, and simply urge moderation in the consumption of any added sweeteners.

Industry representatives complain that the corn-based sweetener is getting a bum rap and that it's hurting corn growers and processors, who have started advertising campaigns aimed at changing public perceptions. The subject was on the minds of corn growers when representatives visited Washington earlier this month to talk to members of Congress.

It's on Ryan Seybert's mind, too. The Omahan gets fired up on the topic of high fructose corn syrup. Seybert, 36, cut the sweetener out of his family's diet five years ago and swears it has helped him lose weight while raising his family's overall health.

Brooke Shown, 33, while shopping at an Omaha Hy-Vee Supermarket, said she tries to avoid high fructose corn syrup and other additives, but finds it difficult when buying items such as cereal and breakfast bars for her husband, Bob Rasgorshek, 33.

“I think more products are going corn-syrup-free, but a lot still use it as the primary sweetener,” she said. “Anything in moderation is fine, I think.”

Industry representatives speak proudly of how ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup has become; these days, you can find it in just about every section of the grocery store. It's used in products from salad dressing to ice cream, from bread to yogurt, from mayonnaise to pies.

In particular, it's used heavily in full-calorie sodas, and the consumer movement toward diet drinks and bottled water has a lot to do with the slackened demand.

But many others have adopted the same approach as Hughes-Deeney and Seybert and are trying to avoid it wherever possible. That mind-set has prompted companies such as ConAgra and other major food and beverage producers to yank the ingredient from some products.

The decision for ConAgra, company officials said, was based on a 2008 survey of consumers that showed growing concern about corn syrup. In the latest version of the consumer survey, 45 percent of those polled said they were “extremely concerned” about the sweetener, compared with 27 percent in 2004.

Consumer demand is an important factor, said company spokeswoman Teresa Paulsen, but there are other considerations such as cost and the ability to make a recipe change while preserving taste.

In the case of Hunt's ketchup, ConAgra was able to eliminate an ingredient that many consumers had qualms about while making the product simpler without raising the price, she said.

“The only thing on the ketchup ingredient list that was an unknown was the sweetener,” Paulsen said. “Ketchup versus other things in our portfolio seemed to make sense from a simplicity standpoint.”

Other companies have made moves, too. Pepsi eliminated high fructose corn syrup from Gatorade, and created “Throwback” editions of Pepsi-Cola and Mountain Dew, made with sugar, which have gained in popularity.

Kraft no longer uses the sweetener in some salad dressings, Starbucks doesn't use it in its baked goods, and it also has been cut from Snapple teas.

Researchers at Princeton University made headlines earlier this year when they released the results of a study that found rats drinking a high fructose corn syrup beverage for six months showed abnormal weight gain and other factors indicating obesity. The study concluded that overconsumption of the sweetener “could very well be a major factor in the ‘obesity epidemic,' which correlates with the upsurge in the use of HFCS.”

A related study found that rats drinking the high fructose corn syrup solution gained more weight than rats drinking a basic sucrose solution.

“The conclusion from that is that high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are not the same after all,” said Bart Hoebel, the professor who worked on the study.

While the Princeton research has been used to condemn corn syrup's widespread use in many foods, Hoebel stressed that the researchers' work was more narrowly focused.

“Our study does not apply to high fructose corn syrup in yogurt, ketchup or other food products. We just don't have any information about that,” he said. “Our study is about drinking excessive amounts of sweetened soft drinks by rats.”

So what should the average consumer take away from the study in terms of their own behavior?

“The rat study does raise a warning that excessive intake of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetened water might be a problem for some people, and I would recommend moderation,” he said.

Corn syrup's boosters cite the importance of moderation as well, but they also complain that the product has been unfairly demonized.

Audrae Erickson, head of the Corn Refiners Association, said the Princeton study and others like it are fundamentally flawed.

“It was a rat study, and fortunately we are not like rats,” she said.

She said that sugar is sugar and pointed to a statement by the American Medical Association supporting that view. She said that corn syrup does more than just sweeten what we eat. It also helps keep food fresh, pulls moisture out of the air to help make hard fibers more palatable and keeps ice cream soft.

It also can be added at low cost, keeping food prices low.

Consumers are not really all that concerned about corn syrup sweetener on their own, she said, and the companies yanking it out of their products are just trying to exploit recent bad publicity to increase their market share.

“It's really a marketing gimmick to a great extent,” Erickson said.

Leon Corzine, former president of the National Corn Growers Association, was among those in Washington recently. He talked up the merits of corn syrup and expressed concern about the current trend lines that show the percentage of the corn market going to high fructose corn syrup slipping.

“Those incremental differences make a big difference to the farm,” Corzine said.

USDA figures show Iowa was the biggest corn-producing state in the country in 2009, with 2.4 billion bushels. Nebraska ranked third with almost 1.6 billion bushels.

During that year, 489 million bushels of corn were allocated to high fructose corn syrup production.

It's unknown exactly how much demand fluctuations affect the pocketbooks of farmers, but if high fructose corn syrup production dropped by 100 million bushels, that would cost corn farmers about 4 cents on every bushel, according to the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

Multiply Iowa's production figures by that slight drop in price and Iowa corn farmers would be out about $96 million across the board annually. In Nebraska, the loss would be $64 million.

But agriculture economists say lessened demand for corn syrup shouldn't throw Midlands corn farmers into a panic.

While $96 million “is nothing to sneeze at,” it's a relatively small part of the corn market, said Chad Hart, an assistant professor of economics and a grain markets specialist at Iowa State University in Ames.

Iowa's overall corn market was worth about $8.52 billion last year and Nebraska's was $5.68 billion, given the most recent USDA figures showing that corn farmers were paid an average of $3.55 per bushel.

Hart said each year the United States corn crop yields get bigger and bigger while demand for corn syrup over the past 10 years has remained the same or decreased.

More of the corn crop is being used for ethanol and for feeding livestock, making the market's dependence on sweeteners such as corn syrup less of a factor.

He said corn syrup is being blamed for market price declines that actually are being caused by weather and overall quality.

“More people have concerns about overall corn production this year,” Hart said, “and that's having a bigger impact on prices than what's going on in corn syrup.”

Contact the writer:

444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com

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