John Schrom » Food http://john.mn Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:39:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Mercury in HFCS http://john.mn/2009/10/mercury-in-hfcs/ http://john.mn/2009/10/mercury-in-hfcs/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:32:34 +0000 john http://blog.johnschrom.com/?p=24 Apparently one-third of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) containing products are contaminated with mercury. The worst offender? Chocolate milk. Well, dairy products in general (60% contained mercury). Mercury was also found in every food/drink category tested, including dressings, syrups, snacks, and soups. On the bright side, only 16% of beverages (e.g. non-diet soda) contained mercury. For the record, the levels found were below the EPA requirements — if that makes you feel any safer…

Mercury is used to produce “caustic soda” which is in turn used to help separate the corn starch from the kernels. Mercury plants have a pretty bad record for keeping track of where their mercury goes:

The nine mercury cell plants operating in 2003 reported consuming 38 tons of mercury, but emitting just eight tons into the environment. What happened to the other 30 tons? The plants cannot account for it.

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