Hold the Fructose: FDA Petitioned to Act Against Certain High Fructose Corn Syrups

By Ricardo Carvajal –

A consumer group, Citizens for Health, submitted a citizen petition (Docket No. FDA-2012-P-0904) to FDA asking the agency to “take action to protect the public from the illegal, mislabeled use of high fructose corn syrup (‘HFCS’) that is above 55 percent fructose” and to require disclosure of the amount of fructose in HFCS.  The petition contends that FDA’s GRAS affirmation regulation for HFCS extends only to HFCS that contains 42% or 55% fructose, and that food producers are unlawfully using HFCS with other fructose concentrations (e.g., 90%).  According to the petition, “it is well recognized that fructose in particular has been epidemiologically and clinically linked with obesity and metabolic syndrome.”