The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy released two new studies to the public yesterday that have found mercury in common foods sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.
The report summarizes how this happens: “In making HFCS, caustic soda is used, among other things, to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. For decades, HFCS has been made using mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants. The use of mercury cells to produce caustic soda can contaminate caustic soda, and ultimately HFCS, with mercury.”
According to Environmental Health:
Mercury was found in nearly 50% of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup.” Ben Lilliston of The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) reports that in a followup study they detected mercury in “nearly one-third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient– including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft, and Smucker.
In his report Lilliston claims that the average American consumes about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS and some kids and teens can be consuming up to nearly 80% more than that. …continue reading »