May 31, 2012

Makers of high-fructose corn syrup such as Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), Cargill Inc. and others cannot label the product "corn sugar" in advertisements, US regulators said.

"Use of the term 'sugar' to describe HCFS, a product that is a syrup, would not accurately identify or describe the basic nature of the food or its characterising properties," Michael Landa, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said today in a letter denying the industry's petition. Regulations permit use of the term "sugar" only to describe "solid, dried and crystallised" foods, he said.

US Sugar Corp. and other sugar processors sued corn syrup makers in federal court to stop an advertising campaign claiming "your body can't tell the difference" between granular sugar, or sucrose, and corn syrup. The Corn Refiners Association, representing syrup producers, asked the FDA in September 2010 to approve "corn sugar" as a term for corn syrup.

The FDA denied the industry's petition on "narrow, technical grounds," Audrae Erickson, the president of the Corn Refiners Association, said in a statement.

"They did not address or question the overwhelming scientific evidence that high fructose corn syrup is a form of sugar and is nutritionally the same as other sugars," she said.