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Marketers Answer Call to Eliminate High-Fructose Corn Syrup
Corn Refiners Fight Back as Kraft, Pepsi Tout Revamped Products
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — First it was fat, then it was trans fat, and now it’s corn syrup. Kraft Foods has reformulated a handful of its most popular products in recent years, removing high-fructose corn syrup from Bulls-Eye barbecue sauce, Capri Sun Juice drinks with 25% less sugar, and the majority of its Kraft Salad Dressings line. The company is launching a campaign for Wheat Thins next week, from agency Draft FCB, Chicago. Kraft has reformulated the crackers, more than doubling their whole-grain content, and getting rid of HFCS.
“We saw some consumers were interested in products without high-fructose corn syrup, so we decided as part of this quality improvement to eliminate [it],” said Kraft spokesman Basil Maglaris. He added that Kraft isn’t out to eliminate HFCS across the board. Marquee products such as Oreos, of course, still contain the sweetener.
Some beverage companies are also promoting their lack of HFCS. PepsiCo launched “throwback” versions of Pepsi and Mountain Dew, which are essentially HFCS-free formulations in retro cans. The products proved successful, leading the company to bring them back for another eight-week run, beginning Dec. 28. A third product, Pepsi Natural, launched this spring and is being positioned as a premium cola. Snapple, meanwhile, went a step further, revamping its entire line of premium juices and teas to eliminate HFCS.
CRA getting message out
Retailers are also climbing onboard the anti-corn bandwagon. Costco has been selling Mexican-made Coca-Cola in some markets, sweetened with sugar rather than syrup, apparently to rave reviews. Costco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Starbucks removed HFCS and trans fat from products in its bakery case this summer.
But the Corn Refiners Association is fighting back. Its campaign, from agency DDB, Chicago, depicts people such as mothers in a kitchen, or a young couple on a picnic blanket, talking about whether corn sweeteners are bad for you. “It has the same amount of calories as sugar, honey, and it’s fine in moderation,” a woman says while handing her boyfriend a popsicle stick.
“It has really been a nationwide multimedia and advertising campaign targeted principally at moms, given the role they play in buying food,” Corn Refiners Association President Audrae Erickson said of her group’s effort. The association does an all-cable TV buy, focusing on female- and family-oriented networks, such as Lifetime, Bravo, TLC and the Food Network.
According to TNS Media Intelligence, the Corn Refiners Association spent $12 million in measured media during the first half of 2009. Ms. Erickson declined to give the campaign’s budget, but described it as “similar to that of a consumer-package-goods company.”
The organization has also orchestrated a massive public-relations campaign through PR agency Weber Shandwick, also in Chicago. The team is reaching out to mommy bloggers to correct the impression that refined sugar is healthier than HFCS. Ms. Erickson said this effort has been different than the usual mommy-blogger outreach. Massive sampling in search of reviews, for instance, “wouldn’t be appropriate,” she said. It’s all part of a “rapid response” function that also contacts media covering the industry, particularly if they describe a reformulation that removes HFCS as a “healthful” transformation.
Missing the point?
The association has also targeted “thought leaders” such as dieticians and physicians, possibly leading to statements from the American Medical Association and the American Dietetic Association that high-fructose corn syrup is about the same as refined sugar. Ms. Erickson, a former USDA economist, said that the current consumer backlash hasn’t affected the corn refiners’ wallets yet. Consumers’ shift to bottled water and diet sodas from full-calorie colas over the last decade has left the category flat to slightly down in recent years. But current sentiment did spark the campaign. Books such Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” got many consumers thinking about corn consumption for the first time.
Still, some advocates think they’re missing the point.
“I don’t know whether it’s laughable or tragic that the corn refiners association is likening its product to sugar,” Rory Freedman, co-author of “Skinny Bitch,” wrote in an e-mail. “Neither HFCS or refined sugar is good for us. Our bodies simply do not like foods that have been highly processed, especially those which cause spikes in our blood-sugar levels.”
Michelle Simon, author of “Appetite for Profit,” said that the product is also much cheaper than sugar, and it has encouraged people to eat and drink more. “It’s the reason why it’s only 10 cents more for a large soda,” she said.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=138583
Excellent article!
Another angle to consider is that there are environmental/ethical reasons why not to consume HFCS: GMO’s and non-organic corn farming. I don’t think we’ll hear the Corn Refiner’s Assoc. bring up these issues. I think they are enjoying the positive press they are getting recently equating both HFCS and sugar, which, in my opinion, is only a tiny part of the overall picture of HFCS. The fact that it is such a cheap, subsidized commodity added to so many products points to money being the real reason behind all the hype. Big cane and beet are giving Big corn a run for their money. All in a race to provide consumers with non-nutritive substances that add calories to our food!
I appreciate Freedman’s response that both HFCS and sugar should be eaten less. This is key.
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HFCS is sweeter than sugar and is digested differently and in a bad way. It goes directly to the liver releasing enzymes that instruct the body to store fat. It also may slow fat burning and cause weight gain. Other research indicates it does not stimulate insulin production, which usually creates a sense of being full. People then eat more than they should which causes weight gain.
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what about blue agave low glycemic index sweetner…its all i use for sweetening!
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It’s about time these companies are seeing the light. All Post cereals have no hfcs. Kellogg’s should do the same.. HFCS is one of our biggest problems in health care.
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Corn syrup is poisonous to the body, as are tons of those industrial additives put into our food supply.
In time, those that are educated will be the majority, and then most of these poisons will be removed permanently.
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Starbucks is eliminating HFCS, but what about their products that contain Propylene Glycol (an ingredient used in de-icing planes and anti-freeze)? I stopped in once, and asked to see a list of ingredients for one of their baked goods, and propylene glycol was on the list.
Jewel Food stores among others (I have even seen it in cheese, at Whole Foods!)also carry baked goods with Propylene Glycol.
Here’s another ingredient to get out of products we are ingesting! Eating chemicals is not a good idea, what ever happened to REAL food!? No wonder so many serious diseases are on the rise, and we have an obesity epidemic.
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seacrow Reply:
September 1st, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Propylene glycol is not antifreeze; you’re thinking of Ethylene glycol, which is antifreeze and also a deadly liver poison. If your pet ever laps up EG from an antifreeze spill, get it drunk ASAP with grain alcohol; this will protect its liver. Better sick from booze than an agonizing death.
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Everything talked about here is really a continuation of the battle between profits generated at the expense of people, VS at their benefit.
I acknowledge everyone who raises their voice, because the more companies know that we are educated about and want foods that promote health instead of add to the sick-care industry, the better off our communities will be.
Profits are necessary for the sustainability of anything, but they are usually reflective of demand, and it’s that we must continue to change- and then give it a voice.
Smart companies would do well to read newsletters such as this one, and who knows- some probably do just that- and see that consumer are educating themselves and we can assert a positive force.
Tim Wilson- (work-at-home guy who has remained happily outside of hospitals and doctors for decades)
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This is a wonderful website. So much more needs to be done to educate the general public about the poisoning of our food supply by Big Agri-Business. Low-income people are especially vulnerable to the lies and propaganda spewed out by the Big Food Corporations because of an overall lack of education and understanding. Even if they understood, how would they be able to afford the products that are made without these poisonouse substances? Healthy food, especially organic, comes at a premium price that few can afford. I would like to see more of a push to lower the cost and availability of healthy, organic foods so that those who are struggling to put food on the table have the opportunity to nourish themselves with good, healthy food.
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Sherri bowthorpe Reply:
August 29th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Actually, filling your cart in the produce section of the grocery store is much less expensive than the processed and refined things are.
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John Reply:
April 19th, 2010 at 4:29 am
That is just a lie.
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It is all about money! If the corporate machine can’t pump their excess corn through our cars they will pump it through our bodies!
GM corn wreaking havoc in the food supply. High fructose corn syrup increasing obesity, diabetes, especially in children and increased heart disease. Humans are not meant to consume such highly refined and manipulated “products”. An educated and awake population is the only defense against tyranny.
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Yes, it is all about $. They don’t care if we get sick…just let them make more money. there ought to be a law that makes them pay for our health care due to back ingredients that make people sick. I do not take meds and am 76 years young. My father passed away of TB in 1960 at 49 years young. I am health conscious and so should everyone be…you have to excercise in some way…somehow…eat heathy as you can and set an example for the children. Get rid of the sodas…sugar, sugar, sugar. Shame on these companies. Thank you.
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Yes, it is all about $. They don’t care if we get sick…just let them make more money. There ought to be a law that makes them pay for our health care due to bad ingredients that make people sick. I do not take meds and am 76 years young. My father passed away of TB in 1960 at 49 years young. I am health conscious and so should everyone be…you have to excercise in some way…somehow…eat heathy as you can and set an example for the children. Get rid of the sodas…sugar, sugar, sugar. Shame on these companies. Thank you.
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Quite a few years ago I was tested for diabetas. The doctor used corn syrup for
the test. My blood sugar levels went from
40 to 400. I was tested by another doctor
and the results were the same. Several
years later I read that corn syrup might
create unstable blood sugar levels. I asked
for another test using cane sugar. This
time my blood sugar was normal. Don’t
tell me there is no difference between cane
sugar and corn syrup.
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Gayle Reply:
August 31st, 2009 at 10:08 am
So interesting. I have suspected that!
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Gayle Reply:
August 31st, 2009 at 10:11 am
So interesting. I have suspected that! I am referring to Vicki’s coment
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As I see it: the problem is that we don’t generally question the quality of our food. Because it is on the market/in the grocery, it is accepted as healthy and not harmful, to the public at large. Therefore you see people with their shopping carts full of packaged, bottled, and frozen prepared foods who think they are eating healthfully. Fresh foods take longer to prepare, and families are fractured and popping something in the microwave is so much easier to do. So it boils down to a social problem as well as a food problem. I don’t know the answer-I read labels and if I don’t know what is there, I don’t eat it. How do you educate the public when all the advertising is against it????
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I am thrilled that companies are waking up and removing the high frutose corn syrup from foods. It gives me (and one of my daughters) headaches, so I avoid it. Now, let’s get rid of the aspertame too! I work part time at a grocery store and it is amazing the amount of pop, liquors and sugar sweet things that go out of the store! No wonder a lot of people are fighting obesity and ill.
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I am glad to see that more and more people are slowly, but surely, finding out about HFCS!!
In Canada it doesn’t even show as HFCS on the list of product ingredients! It is listed as “glucose-fructose”.
If my memory serves, HFCS also contains a GMO created during the processing of these sugars!
Does anyone know if there is a group of people/companies, etc. who have the money required to publically take on the Corn Refiners through advertisements on TV, radio, newspapers, etc.? I don’t know whether Kraft and Pepsico (as examples) are planning a huge advertising program or not.
If anyone reading this comment is interested in getting a product for sweetening food that has no GMO, no calories, and no negative effects on the body; I suggest that you start using Stevia; it is way sweeter than sugar, has no known side-effects
(doesn’t make you crave more), has been used for generations by certain populations.
This product can be purchased, in small amounts (which lasts a very long time), in Health Food Stores, or it can be ordered in large amounts from several companies on the internet. It can be used in everything that calls for sugar, etc.
Some U.S. companies are already fighting to get Stevia approved for use as an ingredient in their products. They are fighting an uphill battle with the FDA (who is being pressured by the Corn Refiners not to approve it for general use in any and all food products), who have approved it for use as a supplement, but not as a food product ingredient.
There are several large companies in the U.S. who are already prepared to use this product, in place of other sweeteners (including sugar, corn syrup, etc.). I have learned that both CocaCola and Pepsico are already prepared to launch products containing Stevia.
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I have already been using Stevia for several years. My favorite is Stevia In The Raw extract. It is very sweet and satisfying. I had to give up all other kinds of sugar because it all made my blood pressure shoot up. Now my blood pressure is always normal unless I visit someone at their home and they insist on making me drink something with sugar (corn sugar) in it. I have found an antidote though which works for me. Soy can act as a nullifier but soy is getting harder to get in the marketplace. Have no idea why but I did actually find some candy bars which had beet sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup and I bought 200 bars of these large bars and they were wonderful. But the crazy people must have heard about the beet sugar and I ate my last beet sugar candy bar yesterday and now am in mourning. It was called Endangered Species Chocolate.
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