A survey of added sugars within the american food supply

Abstract

Although consumers receive much advise on consumption of added sugars, little information is available on their presence in the food supply. Thus, we recorded the listing of added sweeteners in every packaged food item in two locations of a national supermarket chain in RI. Ingredient lists were read for High Fructose Corn Syrup(HFCS), other caloric sweeteners, non‐caloric sweeteners, and no added sweetener. Frequencies of each added sweetener classification were calculated for each of 25 main food groupings. Of note, ‘snack cakes’ had 33.9% of the items containing HFCS and 66.1% containing other caloric sweeteners, whereas ‘cookies’ had 62.1% of the items containing HFCS and 37.9% containing another caloric sweetener. These two food groups, which seem similar in nature, in reality have inverse sugar profiles. In the ‘Soda’ group, 40% contained HFCS, 17% other added sweeteners, 37% non caloric sweeteners, and 6% no added sweetener. Sports drinks where very low in HFCS with only 1.6%, and an even split between caloric sweeteners and noncaloric sweeteners at 44.3%, while 9.8% had no added sweeteners. The ‘condiments’ group had 48.4% containing HFCS, 30.3% other caloric sweeteners, 0.8% noncaloric sweeteners, and 20.5% no added sugars. The pronounced presence of sugars and sweeteners in the packaged food supply demonstrates the high degree of permeation that has occurred in the American food market.