Fact of the Day: Jan 3

January 3, 2007 in FOTD, HFCS

I will try to post a fact of the day most days. They will not always be about HFCS! :) They also will not always be so detailed and scientific.

How HFCS is made:

In simple terms, corn starch (a fine white powder) is processed to produce glucose. A large percentage of the guclose is then converted to fructose through further processing. Now you have a clear syrup!
No big deal, right? Here are the chemicals used:

  1. Corn starch is treated with alpha-amylase, an enzyme industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp.
    Bacillus bacteria
    (originally from Wikipedia)
  2. Next the corn starch mixture is treated with glucoamylase. Though alpha-amylase is a bacteria, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top.
    Aspergilus fungi

    3. (originally from Wikipedia)

  3. A third enzyme is then applied: glucose-isomerase. This enzyme is responsible for converting the mixture from 100% glucose to about 42% fructose and 52% glucose with a few other sugars mixed in. Glucose-isomerase is very expensive so the slurry of corn starch plus bacteria plus fungi is run across this enzyme so that it can be reused (rather than being added and mixed into the corn starch as the previous items are).
  4. Next up the solution goes through a liquid chromatography phase (a series of laboratory techniques that separate mixtures). This step brings the mixture up to 90% fructose.
  5. And finally the 90% mixture is mixed in with the original mix until a concentration of 55% fructose is achieved. This is what is called High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Let me summarize: grind up corn into corn starch (somehow), add bacteria, then add fungus, then change the chemical makeup with enzymes, then break in apart into molecules. Yum – that sounds so nutritious and healthy.
You might be wondering why the United States uses so much HFCS based simply on the processing detailed above. Can you believe it is still cheaper to modify corn as detailed to produce HFCS than for companies to use raw sugar? Three primary reasons for this:

  • Corn is governmentally subsidized
  • Sugar is heavily taxed
  • HFCS is liquid and therefore cheaper to transport
  • HFCS extends the shelf life of foods

Sources:

  1. http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html
  2. Wikipedia

(note, this will be x-posted to the HFCS info pages)

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