ConAgra is going back to high fructose corn syrup in their Hunt's brand ketchup. Why are they doing this when they removed HFCS from all of their ketchup products several years ago? According to them, consumer demand has waned. Yeah right.
This move shows a real commitment to improving the health of the nation, does it not? Here is our opinion of what we think happened.
- ConAgra is a major corn grower, which is the main ingredient in high fructose corn syrup.
- ConAgra was part of an FDA petition by the Corn Refiner's Association to change the name of high fructose corn syrup to corn sugar. The Sugar Association vehemently opposed the petition.
- The FDA did not accept the Corn Refiner's Association petition and ruled that they must keep the name HFCS.
- With all of Hunt's ketchups containing table sugar, and ConAgra being angry at the Sugar Association for their role in denying them a way to dupe consumers, ConAgra decided to hit them where it hurts: add a line of HFCS-sweetened ketchup to compete with the existing table sugar-sweetened ketchup. Does anyone believe they will be priced equally?
- In addition, ConAgra can now showing solidarity to their beloved HFCS ingredient. All done under the ruse that "consumer demand waned".
Of course, the loser in all of this is the uninformed consumer.
What's your take?
No comments:
Post a Comment