Called “the killer on the cob” by some and touted as the perfect sweetener by others, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has become the sweetener of choice in today’s food supply. A look on almost any product’s ingredients label reveals how ubiquitous HFCS is, from sliced bread to soft drinks.
Concerns about its suspected ties with obesity and Type 2 diabetes, however, continue to mount despite efforts to prove its safety. And some quick-serve chains, still feeling the sting of the trans fat backlash, are already taking offensive action.
Change is in the air at brands like Jason’s Deli, where HFCS is being pulled off the menu, and at Krystal, where a line of milkshakes and slushies using HFCS-free syrup were introduced in March. And even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in early April that products containing the sweetener could not be called “natural.” But those closest to the sweetener say there’s nothing to be afraid of since sugar and HFCS are nearly chemically identical.
To sort hype from true health news, QSR talked with a mix of experts, advocates, scientists, and operators to find out the truth about one of the most misunderstood ingredients on your menu.
Jason’s Deli has more than 170 stores in 22 states, and company co-owner Rusty Coco plans to make them all high fructose corn syrup free. But he has an uncooperative beverage industry standing in his way and some criticizing the switch altogether.
How did HFCS enter Jason’s Deli’s radar? Was the change consumer driven? It was driven by us. We for years have tried to deliver to our customers a clean product, and back when the trans fat thing started we recognized it was all through our menu, and we said, “What else is out there?” So we eliminated trans fat and we were one of the first companies to do so of our size. And then we saw HFCS, we saw MSG. No one was really coming to us and saying, “What is this bit about high fructose corn syrup?” We said it to ourselves.
The FDA has granted HFCS its ‘safe’ label. Wouldn’t it be easier to just educate consumers? We don’t want our customers to have to even worry about any of it. Again, I keep going back to the trans fat thing. There are restaurants that say, “This is clean.” But when you walk in Jason’s Deli, you don’t have to think about it. It’s something that you don’t have to concern yourself with. Instead of educating [customers] and telling them it’s still caloric if its sucrose or corn syrup, we’d rather take the stuff out.
So your customers don’t have to worry about some menu items having it and others not? Well they do, for now, because we’re not there yet. We’re 16 items short of making the complete conversion. Then yes, we won’t have to say, “This has it but this doesn’t.”
Did you start small with just the kids menu then work your way to the rest of the menu? The kids menu and the rest of the menu kind of interact so we just took the whole load of watermelons and started attacking it. … We did home in on the kids, but we’re going to get the rest of it.
The soft drinks are really the culprit. We would love to see the soft drink industry do something and step forward. We look to the FDA to step forward—the underfunded FDA. Get out there and say something.
When we did the trans fat thing in New York, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) was not even completely backing taking trans fat out. What bothers us, and me especially, is that you really need to be spending your most precious dollars on good food and this good food is not available to all people because it costs more.