Responding to concerns of parents, Sara Lee Corp. said Monday that it is removing high-fructose corn syrup from two of its best-selling breads. Sara Lee switched to sugar in its “Soft & Smooth” made with whole grain white bread and 100 percent whole wheat bread.
“Our core audience, parents with children, has indicated that they want product options without high-fructose corn syrup,” said Jeff Dryfhout, director, Sara Lee North American Fresh Bakery. “With this new recipe Sara Lee Soft & Smooth bread is responding to the needs of our consumers while continuing to provide great-tasting breads with the mild taste and soft texture families love.”
Sara Lee follows other food manufacturers that have replaced the sweetener with cane or beet sugar in products such as syrup, salad dressings and bakery goods.
High-fructose corn syrup has become maligned because consumers see sugar as more natural. Making the sweetener involves using enzymes in a complex series of chemical reactions.
So far, research has yielded evidence as to the effects of the sweetener. Sara Lee acknowledges in its news release that health organizations note no difference in how the sweetener and sugar are metabolized in the body.
I know their charitable foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, is a big backer of far left causes, including the The Tides Foundation.
For me, that is enough to remove all sweetness from SL, and to remove SL from all my grocery shopping lists.
My grandmother used to buy a brand that Sarah Lee took over. I used to love the taste. Now, it’s tasteless. I have begun to avoid any Sarah Lee products. They need to be a little less involved with the Food Police, and a little more concerned about flavor.
This is a marketing ploy and nothing else. The bread will not somehow have fewer calories simply because the kind of sugar has changed. Both high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar have the same amount of calories and are handled by the body the same way. Sara Lee knows this, but because high fructose corn syrup has “become maligned because consumers see sugar as more natural,” they’ll make the switch and try to make bank off of the public scaremongering and misperception.