High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), sometimes also known as Isoglucose, is often lumped together with corn syrup or glucose syrup. In fact, High Fructose Corn Syrup is a special form of corn syrup, used mainly in the United States, where most of the glucose is converted to fructose. The fructose content has now increased up to 90%.

In the US, HFCS is used very frequently, more frequently than sucrose (household sugar), which is the dominant sweetener in Europe. This is due to economic reasons: in addition to the government support of corn cultivation, there is widespread use of cheap genetically-modified corn in the USA. Furthermore, the higher sweetening power of fructose bears some responsibility: the higher sweetness can reduce the amount of syrup used, which has economic advantages.

There are a number of alarming research findings suggesting a link between high fructose consumption in the US and the accumulated health problems such as extreme overweight (obesity) and metabolic syndrome. See publications by Robert H. Lustig, John Yudkin et al.

In Germany, HFCS must be declared as a "glucose-fructose syrup" starting from 5% fructose content, and as "fructose glucose syrup" above 50% fructose content. With less than 5% fructose content, products may be labeled "glucose syrup,” which can be confusing for people with fructose intolerance, as the fructose content is not recognizable from the list of ingredients.

Frusano uses absolutely fructose-free glucose syrup, which is obtained by enzymatic cleavage of elaborately-purified, gluten-free starch.