The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) is a trade association based in Washington, D.C. It represents the corn refining industry in the United States. Corn refining encompasses the production of corn starch, corn oil, and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
The CRA opposed[ when? ] the merger of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads on the grounds it would reduce competition and raise shipping prices. [1]
In 2004, the CRA worked with the University of Illinois and the Agricultural Research Service to create computer models of ethanol production costs. [2]
In 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed rules that would streamline the regulation of biotech crops including those that are genetically engineered. The rules would exempt such crops from regulation if the changes they introduce could have been made through traditional breeding methods. The proposed rules would give biotech firms three options: self-declaring their products as exempt, seeking an exemption letter from the UDSA, or asking the USDA to determine if the traits in question should be exempted or regulated. The CRA, along with other industry groups, strongly opposed this rule change on the grounds that trade and consumer confidence in agricultural products could be compromised. [3]
The CRA launched a public relations campaign in 2008 called "Changing the Conversation about High Fructose Corn Syrup" (HFCS). [4] Initial commercials stated that HFCS was "natural". [5] Later ads stated HFCS is "made from corn ... and is okay to eat in moderation". [5] In response to the claims HFCS is "natural", Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest stated HFCS "is chemically or enzymatically degraded to glucose ... High-fructose corn syrup just doesn't exist in nature." [5] The claim that HFCS is safe in moderation has also been criticized, as HFCS is used in tens of thousands of products in America. Lisa McLaughlin from Time responded by saying "unless you're making a concerted effort to avoid it, it's pretty difficult to consume high-fructose corn syrup in moderation." [5]
In September 2010, the CRA applied for permission to use the name "corn sugar" in place of high fructose corn syrup on food labels for products sold in the United States. Time stated that the CRA's decision to change the name of HFCS was because HFCS had such a bad reputation. [6] In response to the proposed name change, The New York Times ran an article asking nutrition experts what they would suggest as appropriate names for HFCS. Three of the five experts recommended alternate names, including Michael Pollan who suggested "enzymatically altered corn glucose". Dr Andrew Weil recommended not changing from HFCS, calling the term corn sugar "too vague" and the CRA's attempt to change HFCS's name "Orwellian". However Dr. Barry Popkin felt that "corn sugar" was an appropriate term. [7] [8] In May 2012, the Food and Drug Administration rejected the name change. [9]
In 2010, the CRA approached bloggers who run mom blogs, through the organization MomCentral.com. [10] Bloggers were extended offers of $50 Wal-Mart gift certificates in exchange for writing about a CRA sponsored seminar that made the claims that high fructose corn syrup is safe and healthy. Several prominent bloggers criticized the CRA's methods as well as the bloggers who passed on the information presented by CRA. [11]
In 1991, the Netherlands implemented trade barriers that affected American corn growers and refiners such as implementing a maximum allowable content for fat and starch that would have effectively ended the duty-free status of corn-based gluten meal by reclassifying most of it as animal feed. The tariffs would have been roughly $100-to-$175 per metric ton. The CRA opposed these trade restrictions. A compromise trade deal was reached in 1992. [12] [13] [14]
The CRA has expressed strong support for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade deal. [15] The CRA and other trade groups sponsored the Farmers for Free Trade Motorcade for Trade. The motorcade traveled extensively through rural areas of the United States to promote approval of the USMCA. The motorcade was intended to raise awareness of the link between free trade and farm income and influence members of Congress, especially freshman lawmakers elected in 2018. [16]
In the late 1990s, Mexico erected trade barriers on corn-based sweeteners made in the United States and then implemented a 20% tax on soft drinks not flavored with Mexican sugar in 2002. This ignited a decade long dispute. The World Trade Organization eventually ruled that the soft-drink tax was illegal. Mexico and the United States reached an agreement to phase them out starting in October 2006 and ending in zero tariffs in 2008. [17]
The CRA expressed support for the preliminary trade deal reached between the United States and China in December 2019. [18]
As of 2020, the president and CEO of CRA was John Bode. [16] [15]
Members of the CRA include Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Ingredion, Roquette America, Inc. and Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas. [19]
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a ketonic simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galactose, that are absorbed by the gut directly into the blood of the portal vein during digestion. The liver then converts both fructose and galactose into glucose, so that dissolved glucose, known as blood sugar, is the only monosaccharide present in circulating blood.
Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula C
12H
22O
11.
Corn syrup is a food syrup which is made from the starch of corn and contains varying amounts of sugars: glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to soften texture, add volume, prevent crystallization of sugar, and enhance flavor. Corn syrup is not the same as high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is manufactured from corn syrup by converting a large proportion of its glucose into fructose using the enzyme D-xylose isomerase, thus producing a sweeter substance.
Dublin Dr Pepper is the popular name for a style of Dr Pepper soft drink made by the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas. Dublin Dr Pepper followed the original recipe, using cane sugar as the sweetener as opposed to newer high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The Dublin plant formula's use of sugar made it popular among soda fans. According to the corporate headquarters at Dr Pepper Snapple Group, this resulted in clashes with other bottlers and the parent company of Dr Pepper. On 12 January 2012, it was announced that the drink will no longer be produced, after the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company settled the trademark dispute instigated by Dr Pepper Snapple Group. In 2014, the surviving Dublin Bottling Company was the subject of a documentary “Bottled Up: The Battle Over Dublin Dr Pepper” which followed the bottling company as it dealt with the response to the lawsuit and building a new brand without Dr Pepper.
Fructose malabsorption, formerly named dietary fructose intolerance (DFI), is a digestive disorder in which absorption of fructose is impaired by deficient fructose carriers in the small intestine's enterocytes. This results in an increased concentration of fructose. Intolerance to fructose was first identified and reported in 1956.
Golden syrup or light treacle is a thick, amber-coloured form of inverted sugar syrup made by the process of refining sugar cane or sugar beet juice into sugar. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance and consistency similar to honey, and is often used as a substitute where honey is unavailable.
Hunt's is the name of a brand of preserved tomato products owned by Conagra Brands. The company was founded in 1888, in Sebastopol, California, as the Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co., by Joseph and William Hunt. The brothers relocated to nearby Santa Rosa in 1890, and then to Hayward in 1895. This small canning operation grew rapidly, focused on canning the products of California's booming fruit and vegetable industries. By 1941, the plant shipped a hundred million cans of soup, fruits, vegetables, and juices annually.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzymes. To make HFCS, the corn syrup is further processed by D-xylose isomerase to convert some of its glucose into fructose. HFCS was first marketed in the early 1970s by the Clinton Corn Processing Company, together with the Japanese Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, where the enzyme was discovered in 1965.
Glucose syrup, also known as confectioner's glucose, is a syrup made from the hydrolysis of starch. Glucose is a sugar. Maize (corn) is commonly used as the source of the starch in the US, in which case the syrup is called "corn syrup", but glucose syrup is also made from potatoes and wheat, and less often from barley, rice and cassava.p. 21
Corn kernels are the fruits of corn. Maize is a grain, and the kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable or a source of starch. The kernel comprise endosperm, germ, pericarp, and tip cap.
Agave syrup, also known as maguey syrup or agave nectar, is a sweetener commercially produced from several species of agave, including Agave tequilana and Agave salmiana. Blue-agave syrup contains 56% fructose as a sugar providing sweetening properties.
Corn sugar may refer to:
The sugar side letter was added to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in last minute negotiations between the Clinton Administration and the Mexican Government before the Congress approved the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act. It altered NAFTA's initial sugar provisions by adding one additional factor to the formula to be used to determine how much sugar Mexico could export to the United States through 2008. Mexican access to the U.S. market was initially set to be equal to the amount of its net sugar surplus, subject to a maximum of 25,000 tonnes over the 1995-2001 period and a maximum of 250,000 metric tons in 2001–2008. The side letter changed this definition to add Mexican consumption of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to the "net production surplus" definition. This change effectively lowers the amount of sugar that Mexico can sell to the U.S. market.
Pepsi-Cola Made with Real Sugar, originally called Pepsi Throwback and still branded that way in some markets, is a soft drink sold by PepsiCo. The drink is flavored with cane sugar and beet sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, with which soft drink companies replaced sugar in their North American products in the 1980s. In June 2014, the Pepsi Throwback name was replaced by the current name, which continues to be made without high fructose corn syrup. As of April 2020 it received a new logo. The "throwback" name was also used for a variant of PepsiCo's citrus-flavored Mountain Dew.
In the United States, Mexican Coca-Cola, or Mexican Coke or, informally, "Mexicoke", refers to Coca-Cola produced in and imported from Mexico. The Mexican formula that is exported into the U.S. is sweetened with white sugar instead of the high-fructose corn syrup used in the American formula since the early 1980s. Some tasters have said that Mexican Coca-Cola tastes better, while other blind tasting tests reported no perceptible differences in flavor.
Critics and competitors of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), notably the sugar industry, have for many years used various public relations campaigns to claim the sweetener causes certain health conditions, despite the lack of scientific evidence that HFCS differs nutritionally from sugar. The HFCS industry has tried to respond to these campaigns with their own efforts.
High-maltose corn syrup (HMCS) is a food additive used as a sweetener and preservative. The majority sugar is maltose. It is less sweet than high-fructose corn syrup and contains little to no fructose. It is sweet enough to be useful as a sweetener in commercial food production, however. To be given the label "high", the syrup must contain at least 50% maltose. Typically, it contains 40–50% maltose, though some have as high as 70%.
Renee Dufault is an American research scientist. A former Food and Drug Administration researcher and whistleblower, who brought media attention to three separate studies that discovered mercury contained within high fructose corn syrup. After several years, Dufault and her independent research team asserted a direct connection between inorganic mercury and glucose levels in the blood that showed dietary inorganic mercury exposure may be a risk factor in the development of diabetes.
The sugar industry of the United States produces sugarcane and sugar beets, operates sugar refineries, and produces and markets refined sugars, sugar-sweetened goods, and other products. The United States is among the world's largest sugar producers. Unlike most other sugar producing countries, the United States has both large and well-developed sugarcane and sugar beet industries. Refined sugarcane, processed sugar beet, and high-fructose corn syrup are all commonly used in the U.S. as added sugars to sweeten food and beverages.
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