Mercury in high fructose syrup
Mercury Found In High Fructose Corn Syrup Used As Food Sweetener
Researchers in the US found that much of the high fructose corn syrup that is increasingly replacing sugar in processed foods is tainted with mercury, a metal that is toxic to humans. They also tested many branded food products and found they too contained mercury.
The findings come from two studies, one of which is published in the journal Environmental Health and the other is by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).
Dr David Wallinga, who works at the IATP, was involved in both studies. He told the press that mercury was toxic in all its forms, and that:
“Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered.”
Use of HFCS as a sweetener instead of sugar has risen sharply in recent decades, and now is commonly used to sweeten breads, cereals, breakfast bars, beverages, luncheon meats, yogurts, soups, and condiments.
According to IATP estimates, the average American probably eats about 12 teaspoons of HFCS a day, with teenagers and consumers on the higher end of the spectrum perhaps eating 80 per cent higher than this.
In the first Environmental Health study, researchers, led by Renee Dufault, who was working at the FDA at the time, found mercury in nearly 50 per cent (9 out of 20) of samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) they tested in 2005.
In the second, IATP study, researchers sent 55 popular branded foods and drinks where HFCS is the first or second highest labelled ingredient to a commercial laboratory for testing; they found that nearly one third of them contained trace amounts of mercury.
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