Recent News Reports of Sweetener Reformulations Raise Questions About Motivations

Recent News Reports of Sweetener Reformulations Raise Questions About
Motivations

WASHINGTON, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The misleading "health" halo surrounding
highly-publicized marketing campaigns regarding sweetener reformulations is
starting to dim.

Recent announcements by Starbucks and other brands that they will remove high
fructose corn syrup from certain products are being called into question in
news articles by several experts and respected journalists. These articles
have poked holes in companies' marketing efforts and put forth scientifically
substantiated facts about sweeteners commonly used in foods.

-- As Washington Post health reporter Jennifer LaRue Huget wrote on June
12, "...most nutrition experts now agree there's really little
material difference" between high fructose corn syrup and other
caloric sweeteners. She added "They all deliver about 15-20
calories per teaspoon, and the human body appears not to know one from
the other."(1)
-- A June 25 Chicago Tribune article quoted food industry critic Walter
Willett, M.D., of Harvard University's School of Public Health and
author of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, who called recent product
reformulations a "marketing distraction."(2)

-- Another well-known food industry critic, Marion Nestle, commented that
this type of product reformulation is a "calorie distractor."
Nestle, who is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food
Studies
and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat and
Food Politics, continued her criticism stating, "The irony is that
white table sugar -- formerly a leading target of 'eat less'
messages -- suddenly has a health aura. Marketers have wasted no time
moving in to use that aura to sell the same old products."(3)

"Consumers are being misled into thinking that there are nutritional
differences between high fructose corn syrup and sugar, when in fact they are
nutritionally the same," said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners
Association. "Whether from cane, beets, or corn, a sugar is a sugar. They
all contain four calories per gram. Switching out a kind of corn sugar for
table sugar is not for health and it is not for science. It is for quarterly
earnings. It is unfortunate that consumers are being duped by these marketing
gimmicks - gimmicks which may result in higher food prices at checkout,"
Erickson said.

To learn more about the latest research and facts about sweeteners, including
high fructose corn syrup, please visit www.SweetSurprise.com.

CRA is the national trade association representing the corn refining (wet
milling) industry of the United States. CRA and its predecessors have served
this important segment of American agribusiness since 1913. Corn refiners
manufacture sweeteners, ethanol, starch, bioproducts, corn oil, and feed
products from corn components such as starch, oil, protein, and fiber.

(1). Huget JL. June 12, 2009. "Is That Right? "Real Sugar" is Everywhere. But
is it Better for You?" Washingtonpost.com/The Checkup. Accessed June 28, 2009.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2009/06/is_that_right_real_sugar_is_ev.html
(2). Mills S.June 25, 2009. "Natural sugar versus high-fructose corn syrup."
The Chicago Tribune. Available online
www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-high-fructose-corn-syrup-25-jun25,0,7627724.story
(3). Nestle M. "HFCS-free sales booming." foodpolitics.com. Accessed June 29,
2009. http://www.foodpolitics.com/2009/06/hfcs-free-sales-booming/

SOURCE Corn Refiners Association

Audrae Erickson, President of Corn Refiners Association, +1-202-331-1634