Another Reason to Steer Away from HFCS? The Outdated Study

(Continuation from previous posts – here and here)

Well, I wanted to finish exploring the risks from potential mercury exposure in foods containing HFCS, to flesh out the somewhat cryptic posts I’ve been writing (you write long posts, you end up writing not very many of them). But tonight I have to stop and explore the pedigree of the data instead.

This came about because the Corn Refiners Association challenged the relevance of the mercury residue testing study of HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) published earlier this week:

“This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance. Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years. These mercury-free re-agents perform important functions, including adjusting pH balances,” stated Audrae Erickson, President, Corn Refiners Association. “For more than 150 years, corn wet millers have been perfecting the process of refining corn to make safe ingredients for the American food supply.”

“It is important that Americans are provided accurate, science-based information. They should know that high fructose corn syrup is safe,” continued Erickson. “In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally listed high fructose corn syrup as safe for use in food and reaffirmed that decision in 1996.”

“High fructose corn syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets FDA’s requirements for the use of the term ‘natural.”

I’ll glide by for now the statement that HFCS meets FDA requirements for use of the term natural, which is no doubt accurate, but brings questions to mind about what “natural” really means.

The press release didn’t cite any product stewardship information which would support the assertion that caustic soda and hydrochloric acid used in food manufacturing is mercury-free. Maybe the individual manufacturers provide that information, but it sure seems like we have to search it out. . . . EPA states there are five operating mercury cell chlor-alkali plants in the U.S., with one of these plants planning to convert to non-mercury technology by 2012. Based on the most recently available industry census (2002), there are 40 alkali and chlorine manufacturing plants of all sizes in the U.S. Twenty of those facilities have 20 employees or fewer, so there is only a limited pool of facilities to supply the needs of a large food processing industry. I haven’t searched out international data on chlor-alkali manufacturing (look, the industry association should be doing this research, not me). If you make a chain of assumptions, it’s possible to assert that the corn refining industry uses mercury-free reagents, but right now, it doesn’t look supportable. The best course of action for the moment is to make the rebuttable presumption that the corn refining industry buys at least some reagents manufactured using a mercury cell chlor-alkali process to manufacture a couple of billion of dollars worth of HFCS each year, and that there could have been some mercury exposure (or continues to be some exposure) from HFCS and let’s continue assessing the health risks from potential mercury exposure.

Returning to risk assessment stuff now.