FDA: High Fructose Corn Syrup Cannot be Labeled “Corn Sugar”

Responding to a petition from the Corn Refiners Association, FDA says that high fructose corn syrup may not be labeled as simply “corn sugar.”

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) filed its petition back in 2010, requesting that “corn sugar” be allowed as an alternate name to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) because the former more accurately reflects the nature of the ingredient. In a letter to CRA president Audrae Jackson, however, FDA argues that there are not sufficient grounds for the name change:

…FDA’s regulatory approach for the nomenclature of sugar and syrups is that sugar is a solid, dried, and crystallized food; whereas syrup is an aqueous solution or liquid food…Consequently, the use of the term “corn sugar” for HFCS would suggest that HFCS is a solid, dried, and crystallized sweetener obtained from corn.

As its name suggests, high fructose corn syrup is, in fact, a syrup.