Mercury Found in High Fructose Corn Syrup

Now there's another reason to look at labels and avoid foods with corn syrup listed in the ingredients. Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where corn syrup is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

Apparently, high fructose corn syrup is used as a preservative, as well as a sweetener in all sorts of foods. It seems to me that one of the active ingredients in the corn syrup could be mercury, since it is used in vaccinations as a preservative. Crazy. Anyway, see the study for the details, but just another nail in the coffin for highly processed foods.

Here's the worst offenders on the list that was researched:

Product Name Total mercury detected (ppt) Laboratory detection limit (ppt)

Quaker Oatmeal to Go 350
Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce (Heinz) 300
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup 257
Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce 200
Nutri‐Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars 180
Manwich Bold Sloppy Joe 150
Market Pantry Grape Jelly 130
Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly 100
Pop‐Tarts Frosted Blueberry 100
Hunt's Tomato Ketchup 87
Wish‐Bone Western Sweet & Smooth 72
Coca‐Cola Classic 62
Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt 60
Minute Maid Berry Punch 40
Yoo‐hoo Chocolate Drink 30
Nesquik Chocolate Milk 30
Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk 30