Sweeteners Used by the Baking Industry: Their Competitive Position in the United States

Excerpts from report Summary: The baking industry (bakery, cereal, and allied products) is one of the major users of sweeteners in the United States, taking more than one-half the dextrose, 12 percent of the sugar, and 10 percent of the corn sirup delivered to consumers in the United States in 1961. Plants producing bread and related products are located in all sections of the country, more or less in proportion to population, because these products are perishable and expensive to distribute. Biscuits and crackers are produced in a much smaller number of plants of larger size. These products are less perishable than bread and can be shipped comparatively long distances, thus enabling manufacturers to take advantage of the efficiency of larger plants. The baking industry increased its use of sweeteners at an annual average rate of about 48,000 tons, of which nearly 40,000 tons were sugar, 4,000 tons dextrose, and 4,000 tons corn sirup. The percentage rate of increase, based on average tonnages for 1952-61, was highest, 7.1 percent, for corn sirup, and the smallest, 2.1 percent, for dextrose. The rate for sugar was 4.4 percent