High Fructose Corn Syrup: HFCS 42 vs 55, and Is It Worse Than Sugar?
High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener made from corn starch. Enzymes turn some of its glucose into fructose. In the two common forms, HFCS 42 and HFCS 55, fructose makes up 42 or 55 percent of it, against half for table sugar. The FDA is not aware of evidence that one is less safe than the other.
What High Fructose Corn Syrup Actually Is
It starts as corn starch, a long chain of glucose. Break the chain apart and you get corn syrup, which the FDA calls essentially 100 percent glucose. Add enzymes and some of it turns into fructose. It is "high" in fructose only next to plain corn syrup, which has essentially none. Either way it is an added sugar.
The rule that defines it, 21 CFR 184.1866, sets the ingredient at approximately 42 or 55 percent fructose. It points to the Food Chemicals Codex monograph for the specifications. The FDA puts the rest at glucose and water, and USDA FoodData Central puts the syrup at about 24 percent water.
HFCS 42 vs HFCS 55 vs Table Sugar vs Honey
Here is the high fructose corn syrup vs sugar question in one view. Figures come from the FDA, honey's from USDA FoodData Central.
| Sweetener | Fructose share | The rest | Bonded or free | Main use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HFCS 42 | 42 percent | Glucose and water | Free | Processed foods, cereals, baked goods, some drinks |
| HFCS 55 | 55 percent | Glucose and water | Free | Soft drinks |
| Sucrose (table sugar) | 50 percent | Glucose, in an exact one to one ratio | Bonded | General sweetener |
| Honey | About 50 percent of its sugars, roughly one to one | Glucose, water and a trace of sucrose | Free | General sweetener |
Shares here are of the sugars, not total weight. The gap between 42, 50 and 55 percent is small, and the FDA says the same.
Corn Syrup vs High Fructose Corn Syrup
These are two products, and the labels are not swappable. Corn syrup is essentially all glucose. High fructose corn syrup goes through an extra enzyme step that turns part of that glucose into fructose.
Both are added sugars, and both land on the Added Sugars line of a US label. Read corn syrup and assume the high fructose kind, and you have a different ingredient, not a better one.
Fructose vs Glucose vs Sucrose in Plain English
- Glucose is the sugar your body runs on, and what corn starch is built from.
- Fructose is the sweeter one, found in fruit and honey. Fructose vs glucose is a real gap in how the body handles each, and that is where the debate starts.
- Sucrose is table sugar: one glucose bonded to one fructose, and the FDA notes gut enzymes break that bond fast. Fructose vs sucrose is not a fair matchup: sucrose is half fructose by design.
Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Bad for You? How It Compares to Sugar
Short version: the FDA is not aware of evidence of a safety gap with similar sweeteners, and trials against sucrose found few measurable differences. Guidelines cap grams of added sugar, not the name of the sweetener.
What the FDA Says
The FDA's wording matters. It is not aware of any evidence of a safety difference between foods with HFCS 42 or HFCS 55 and foods with similar amounts of other nutritive sweeteners of roughly equal glucose and fructose, such as sucrose or honey.
That is not the same as no difference. It means no such evidence has reached the agency. The same page backs limiting all added sugars, citing the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, now in its 2025 to 2030 edition.
What the Research Found
A 2022 meta-analysis by Li and colleagues in Frontiers in Nutrition pooled four studies, nine arms and 767 people. Against sucrose, the syrup showed no real difference in weight, BMI, waist size, fat mass, cholesterol or blood pressure.
One result did split them. The syrup was linked to a higher level of C reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, by 0.27 mg per litre across three studies. A thin base, and a link is not a cause.
Two other papers get quoted a lot, often wrongly. Bray's 2013 commentary in Diabetes Care notes that sugar and the syrup each carry about 50 percent fructose, so its worry is fructose sweetened drinks in general. A 2019 review by Mai and Yan covers high fructose from any source, sucrose included, and never compares the two.
Why High Fructose Corn Syrup Got a Bad Reputation
The syrup got cheap and common in US food over the same decades that obesity rose. Two lines moving together is a pattern, not a cause.
The trends have since split. This syrup sits in the corn sweetener group. USDA Economic Research Service figures show that per person deliveries fell from 85.8 pounds in 1999 to 50.2 pounds in 2025. So why is high fructose corn syrup bad grew loud as Americans ate less of it.
The Number That Actually Matters: Grams of Added Sugar
US labels give you an Added Sugars line in grams, and the FDA sets its Daily Value at 50 grams on a 2,000 calorie diet. The WHO counts free sugars instead, adding the sugars in honey, syrups and fruit juice, and asks you to stay under 10 percent of your calories, about 50 grams.
Going under 5 percent, roughly 25 grams or 6 teaspoons, brings extra benefit per the WHO. The American Heart Association is stricter again at 25 grams for women and 36 for men. None sets a separate limit for corn syrup, so what matters is how much sugar per day you get in total. The Daily Sugar Intake Calculator turns your calorie needs into a limit in grams, teaspoons and cubes.
A 12 oz can of Coca-Cola holds 39 grams of sugar, about 9.3 teaspoons at 4.2 grams each. That count holds whatever the sweetener, so the sugar in a can of Coke matters more than its ingredient list. The Sugar in Drinks Calculator totals a whole day of drinks against that limit.
Foods With High Fructose Corn Syrup
The FDA names broad groups rather than brands. HFCS 42 goes mainly into:
- Processed foods.
- Breakfast cereals, which carry a real load even in plain looking boxes: see our sugar in breakfast cereal breakdown.
- Baked goods.
- Some drinks outside the soda aisle.
Only the ingredient list names the sweetener in a given pack.
HFCS 55 goes mainly into soft drinks, where most people meet it in bulk. Cutting drinks is the fastest win: here is how to stop drinking soda without white knuckling it.
How to Spot It on a US Label
- Read the Added Sugars line first. It is in grams, and grams are what the guidelines limit.
- Scan the ingredients for "high fructose corn syrup" and "corn syrup". Both are added sugars, and one product can carry both.
- Note where it sits. Ingredients run by weight, biggest first, so second place means far more than last.
Sugar hides behind other words too. Paste an ingredient list into the Hidden Sugar Finder and it highlights the added sugars among the 90 names.
Glucose-Fructose Syrup and Isoglucose: HFCS Outside the US
Shoppers in Britain and Europe rarely see the American name. Under the Specified Sugar Products (England) Regulations 2003, which mirror the EU rule, a glucose syrup above 5 percent fructose by dry weight must be called glucose-fructose syrup, or fructose-glucose syrup when fructose is the bigger share. So HFCS 42 takes the first name and HFCS 55 the second.
EU farm and trade law calls the same family isoglucose. Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 defines it as a product from glucose with at least 10 percent fructose by dry weight, a floor rather than a recipe. The European Parliament records that the EU isoglucose quota, 0.7 million tonnes a year, ran until 1 October 2017.
UK labels read differently too. They print an "of which sugars" figure covering every source. The NHS counts the added ones as free sugars. The Food Label Sugar Decoder turns that into the UK traffic light rating and grams per serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is high fructose corn syrup the same as corn sugar?
No. In US rules, corn sugar means dextrose, pure glucose, under 21 CFR 184.1857. An industry petition to let the syrup use that name did not change US labels.
Why do US food companies use high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar?
Money and handling, not health. The USDA Economic Research Service describes a US sugar program of price supports, marketing allotments and tariff rate quotas. The syrup is made at home from corn and ships as a liquid.
How many calories are in high fructose corn syrup?
USDA FoodData Central lists "Syrups, corn, high-fructose", FDC ID 169659, at 281 calories per 100 grams, with a tablespoon at 19 grams, so about 53 calories. Its sugars carry about 4 calories per gram, the same arithmetic as calories in a gram of sugar. The syrup itself works out lower per gram, near 2.8, because about a quarter of it is water.
Is high fructose corn syrup banned in Europe?
No. It sells there as glucose-fructose syrup on labels and isoglucose in trade law, and its EU quota ended in 2017.
What to Do With All This
On the evidence so far, swapping this syrup for cane sugar changes the ingredient list and little else. Cutting the grams moves a number you can measure.
This is general information, not medical advice; if you have diabetes or another condition, follow your clinician's numbers.
If you would rather see your own daily total than argue about names, Sugar Tracker: Food Scanner is on the App Store for iPhone and free to download. You photograph what you eat and it estimates the added sugar in grams. You confirm every entry, and the day lands against the WHO and AHA limits.