Tuesday, May 4, 2010

More on the HCFS debate...

A story in the New York Times says that Hunt's Ketchup is rolling out a new high fructose corn syrup (HCFS)-free formulation this month. Hunt's is joining other companies (including Gatorade, Ocean Spray, Pepsi, and Kraft) in introducing HFCS-free products, largely in response to public pressure.

Interestingly, Hunt's is owned by ConAgra (which also owns PepsiCo, among many other compaies), one of the largest food production companies in America, which is a heavy user of genetically modified crops as well as HFCS and has lobbied against labeling of genetically modified ingredients.

It seems that the backlash against HFCS is in full swing, and companies are beginning to bow to public pressure. In my opinion, this is a good thing. Although I'm still on the fence about the health effects of HFCS (a little about that here), I am opposed to the corn subsidies that effectively mean that taxpayers are paying for a product that contributes empty calories to processed food and helps create public health problems.

(via The Kitchn)