Citizens for Health launches initiative to fight Corn Refiners Association fraudulent HFCS campaign

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has been busy the past few years trying to salvage the reputation of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a heavily-processed chemical sweetener derived from corn starch that a growing number of Americans are now seeking to avoid for health reasons. The industry's latest marketing stunt involves renaming HFCS to "corn sugar" in order to make the additive sound healthier and more appealing to the public.

Many NaturalNews readers will recall CRA's ridiculous television ad campaign alleging that HFCS is the same as "sugar," and that consuming it is safe in moderation. Well, the group has now modified the campaign to refer to HFCS as "corn sugar," and is petitioning the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant approval for this deceitful name change.

The FDA has not yet made a decision on the matter, but that has not stopped CRA from already using the term "corn sugar" in various marketing materials. In fact, some companies have already begun using the term on ingredient labels, which is a violation of the FDA's policies concerning false and misleading product labeling.

To combat CRA's assault against truth in labeling, Citizens for Health (CFH), a consumer advocacy group, has launched a campaign called Food Identity Theft to rally its 100,000 subscribers and others to contact the FDA and urge a rejection of CRA's "corn sugar" petition. CFH says the scheme is misleading and will trick many Americans into thinking that corn sugar is somehow different from HFCS.

"Millions of Americans are choosing to avoid products that contain HFCS. But many don't know the corporations that make it want to change the name high-fructose corn syrup to corn sugar," said James Gormley, CFH's vice president and senior policy advisor. "If the FDA were to allow this, we'd never know if it's in the foods we're feeding our families."

Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) also recently sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg asking her to deny CRA's proposal on the basis that it will confuse and mislead customers. HFCS is not "sugar," by definition, but rather a chemical concoction that has a sweet flavor. It is processed differently in the body than refined sugar derived from sugar beets or sugar cane. And numerous studies have linked HFCS to obesity, diabetes, liver damage, and various other health problems (http://www.naturalnews.com/029403_h...).

To learn more about the CFH Food Identity Theft initiative, visit:
http://foodidentitytheft.com/

Sources for this article include:

http://www.citizens.org/?p=2767

http://www.naturalproductsmarketpla...

http://foodidentitytheft.com/