A trial in federal district court in Los Angeles “has far-reaching implications for the food industry and American consumers,” says the Palm Beach Post. Sugar growers accuse the corn processing industry of false advertising for saying that high-fructose corn syrup, which competes with cane and beet sugar for use by food and beverage makers, is “natural” and “nutritionally the same as sugar.” The Corn Refiners Association, a trade group, spent $130 million on a “sweet surprise” advertising campaign that promoted HFCS by saying “sugar is sugar” and “your body cannot tell the difference” between the sweeteners. Trial was to open on Tuesday.
The legal contest began in 2011 when Western Sugar Cooperative sued Archer-Daniels-Midland, the largest corn processor, said the Palm Beach Post. In May 2012, the FDA denied a petition by corn refiners to “to change the common name for HFCS to ‘corn sugar,’ saying that corn sugar is a term used for dextrose for more than 30 years,” said the newspaper.