4 June 2009

High Fructose Corn Syrup Meets Mercury

Reader Martha sent me this article from the Washington Post about why she avoids HFCS:

Making HFCS requires sundry chemicals, including caustic soda (also known as sodium hydroxide or lye) which is used to help separate corn starch from corn kernel. In concert with hydrochloric acid, the caustic soda also helps to maintain the HFCS’s pH balance.

Two studies released this week suggest that caustic soda, when produced the old-fashioned mercury way, becomes contaminated with mercury, which then contaminates the HFCS and ultimately, the food. Mercury is a toxic heavy metal that is damaging to neurological development, particularly for developing fetuses and children. (See EPA backgrounder.)

In the first study, published in the journal Environmental Health on Jan 26, Renee Dufault, a former FDA scientist, found detectable mercury in nine out of 20 HFCS samples from three manufacturers. Her findings led to this conclusion: “with 45 percent of the HFCS samples containing mercury in this small study, it would be prudent and perhaps essential for public health that additional research be conducted by the FDA or some other public health agency to determine if products containing HFCS also contain mercury.”

Just another reason HFCS is not the same as other natural sweeteners with similar chemical compositions. I’ll pass on the “sundry chemicals” and potential mercury contamination. Thanks, Martha!