Sweeteners Used by Food Processing Industries: Their Competitive Position in the United States

Excerpts from the report Summary: Industrial food processors are the largest users of sweeteners in the United States. The principal sweeteners used are sugar, corn sirup, dextrose, and the noncaloric sweeteners, saccharin and sucaryl. In addition, food processors are important users of such other sweeteners as honey, maple sirup, and edible molasses. Sugar is still the primary sweetener used by food processors, but its position in the manufacture of a number of products, such as canned fruits, ice cream and other frozen desserts, and soft drinks, has been slowly weakening and that of other sweeteners, particularly corn sirup and noncaloric sweeteners, improving. The rising price of sugar, relative to other sweeteners, is an important factor inducing industrial food processors to substitute other sweeteners for sugar. Other factors working in the same direction include: (1) The introduction of new noncaloric sweeteners following World War II, and (2) improvements in the quality of corn sirup and an increase in the variety of types available to purchasers