High Fructose Corn Syrup- All Natural!! (Scary)

the high fructose corn syrup publicity machine is beginning

Whoopsie, apparently all of our (and Michael Pollan's) hating on high-fructose corn syrup is starting to ruffle some feathers, specifically those of the people who make their money selling high-fructose corn syrup. They're fighting back with a major PR campaign that is trying to convince worried moms that corn syrup is as natural as honey. Really? I know, I didn't believe it either, but here's what they had to say in their press release:

HFCS, like table sugar and honey, is natural. It is made from corn, a natural grain product. HFCS contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets FDA's requirements for the use of the term "natural."

Hmmm... to get honey, you fight your way through some bees and crack open a honey comb and blammo, you've got your honey right there. With maple syrup, you tap some trees and then condense it down through boiling and blammo, maple syrup. Pretty much the same process with sugar beets and sugar cane, although you have to mash those first and then throw them into a colander to strain them. In fact, if you had the raw ingredients, you could totally make beet sugar or maple syrup in your own kitchen. But corn syrup? Here's the recipe from Linda Joyce Forristal, in case you want to make it at home (except, well, you probably don't have an industrial factory for a kitchen).

First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers. Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top. The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its activity. There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose--what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup.

Sounds pretty straight forward, huh? All enyzme-y and natural? I think it would be easier to make your own Legos from scratch, honestly, but let's see how gullible the average consumer is, shall we?

http://elasticwaist.com/2008/06/dont-believe-everything-you-re.php