High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is used primarily as a liquid sweetener in processed foods and beverages, from soft drinks and baked goods to condiments, cereals, and snack bars. It became a staple of the American food supply in the 1980s because it’s cheap, easy to handle in manufacturing, and functionally versatile. At roughly $0.35 per pound compared to $1.01 for refined white sugar, it remains one of the most cost-effective sweeteners available to food manufacturers.
How HFCS Is Made
HFCS starts as ordinary corn starch. Manufacturers use enzymes to break the starch down into glucose, then convert a portion of that glucose into fructose through a process called isomerization. The result is a thick, clear syrup that blends easily into liquid and semi-liquid products.
The two most common commercial forms are HFCS-42 and HFCS-55, named for their fructose content. HFCS-42 contains 42% fructose, while HFCS-55 contains 55%. The remainder in both cases is glucose and water. For comparison, regular table sugar (sucrose) is a 50/50 split of fructose and glucose, making the composition of HFCS surprisingly similar.
Soft Drinks and Beverages
The beverage industry is the single largest user of HFCS, and HFCS-55 is the standard choice. Its sweetness closely matches table sugar, so it could be swapped directly into existing drink formulas when manufacturers first adopted it in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But the real advantages go beyond taste. Because HFCS is already a liquid, it mixes seamlessly into drinks without the dissolving step that granulated sugar requires. And because it’s made of individual fructose and glucose molecules (rather than bonded pairs like sucrose), it’s more chemically stable in acidic beverages like colas and fruit drinks, where sucrose can break down over time and cause off-flavors.
You’ll find HFCS-55 in regular sodas, sports drinks, sweetened teas, juice cocktails, flavored waters, and many energy drinks.
Baked Goods and Bread
HFCS-42, the less sweet version, is the workhorse in baked goods. It does more than add sweetness. In bread, it feeds yeast during rising, promotes browning in the crust, and helps the finished loaf retain moisture so it stays soft longer on store shelves. That moisture-retention property is one reason supermarket bread feels softer for days compared to a loaf from a bakery that uses only sugar or honey.
Cookies, pastries, breakfast bars, and packaged cakes also commonly contain HFCS-42. In these products it serves a dual role: keeping textures moist and chewy while extending shelf life.
Condiments and Savory Foods
One of the things that surprises people is how often HFCS shows up in foods that don’t taste particularly sweet. Ketchup, barbecue sauce, salad dressings, relish, and many marinades contain it. In these products, a small amount of sweetener balances acidity (especially the vinegar and tomato in ketchup) and rounds out the overall flavor profile.
Peanut butter, crackers, canned soups, and some frozen meals also use HFCS. Even salty snack mixes sometimes include it. If a processed food has an ingredient list, there’s a reasonable chance HFCS is on it.
Why It Became So Dominant
The economics tell most of the story. U.S. corn farming subsidies have kept HFCS production costs low for decades. Bulk HFCS costs about $0.35 per pound in 2025, up only slightly from $0.27 in 2015. Refined white sugar, meanwhile, has climbed from $0.61 to $1.01 per pound over the same period. That price gap, nearly three to one, gives manufacturers a powerful incentive to use corn syrup.
The liquid form also saves manufacturers time and equipment costs. Granulated sugar needs to be dissolved before it can be mixed into most products, while HFCS arrives ready to pump directly into production lines. For companies producing millions of units per day, that efficiency matters.
How Your Body Processes It
HFCS and table sugar are metabolized in very similar ways, but the fructose portion of both follows a distinctive path. When you consume fructose, it travels through the portal vein directly to the liver, which processes nearly all of it before any reaches the rest of your body. Glucose, by contrast, enters general circulation and gets used by cells throughout your body for energy.
The liver converts fructose into fat through a process that is significantly more efficient than fat production from glucose. One reason is speed: the liver’s first enzyme for processing fructose works about 10 times faster than its counterpart for glucose, which rapidly depletes the liver’s energy stores and generates uric acid as a byproduct. Fructose also doesn’t require insulin to be metabolized and doesn’t trigger a significant insulin response, which means it bypasses some of the body’s normal appetite-signaling mechanisms.
In large amounts over time, this can contribute to fat buildup in the liver. Fructose activates the liver’s fat-production machinery at every step, converting carbohydrate building blocks into triglycerides. It also promotes this fat production even in people who are already insulin resistant, because the process doesn’t depend on insulin. These properties aren’t unique to HFCS. Table sugar delivers fructose in similar quantities and triggers the same liver pathways. The concern is really about total fructose intake from all sweetened foods, not HFCS specifically.
The Shift Away From HFCS
Consumer perception has pushed many major brands to reconsider their use of HFCS. McDonald’s removed it from its buns and shake syrups back in 2016. Papa John’s became the first national pizza chain to drop it the same year. More recently, Tyson Foods announced it will stop using corn syrup in its products by the end of 2025, and In-N-Out switched to ketchup made with cane sugar instead.
Coca-Cola announced plans to sell a cane sugar version of its flagship cola in the U.S., while Pepsi has offered a cane sugar option (now called Pepsi Real Sugar) nationwide for about a decade. These moves are driven largely by consumer demand for “cleaner” ingredient lists rather than by any meaningful nutritional difference between HFCS and cane sugar.
Switching sweeteners comes at a cost. Analysts note that cane sugar versions of products will likely carry premium prices, and matching current price points would require a significant increase in U.S. cane sugar production or imports. With existing tariffs on major sugar exporters like Brazil, that shift seems unlikely to happen quickly. For now, HFCS remains deeply embedded in the American food supply, even as the list of companies moving away from it continues to grow.