Nutrition

» George Daleiden - HFCS--High Fructose Corn Syrup

There are three generations of HFCS: 42, 55 and 90/95. These numbers refer to the percentage of fructose in the syrup solution on a dry solids basis.

Because pure fructose is sweeter than pure sugar--indeed fructose is the sweetest naturally-occuring nutritive carbohydrate--the more fructose an HFCS syrup contains, the greater the sweetness of the solution.
HFCS-42, the first iteration developed in the early 1970s by a corn refiner in Iowa, contains 42% fructose. HFCS-42 is generally regarded to be about 90-95% as sweet as an equivalent sugar solution. HFCS-55, developed to replace sugar (sucrose) in the carbonated soft drink industry when HFCS-42 proved inadequate, contains 55% fructose, and possesses a swetness "profile" essentially identical to a sugar solution. HFCS-90/95 contains 90-95% fructose, and is about 1.25-1.5 times as sweet as an equivalent sugar solution. It is used primarily to sweeten dietetic products.