ChemRisk, a leading scientific consulting firm, was asked by the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) to examine the recent publication by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), "Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup," and the Environmental Health journal publication "Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar," by Dufault et al, 2009, and to offer our comments and analysis.
In summary we found:
- The IATP report and Environmental Health article it references fall well below standards for proper scientific research and published literature.
- The authors of both publications provide incomplete data and misleading conclusions.
- Methods described by the authors deviate from standard procedure in testing for mercury.
- The authors ignore important distinctions between organic and other forms of mercury and their implications for assessing human health risk.
- Even if it were assumed that the mercury content found in the extremely limited sampling of foods and beverages was representative, the amounts are far lower than levels of concern set by government agencies.
The authors assume that the total mercury they detected in a questionably small sampling of consumer foods is primarily the result of high fructose corn syrup; an assumption that has not been properly tested or validated. The recipes for the items studied may have had multiple sources of potential contamination
To imply that there is a safety concern to consumers based on the findings presented is both incorrect and irresponsible.
By combining the results of a four-year-old sampling analysis of high fructose corn syrup with a more recent testing of branded foods and beverages for total mercury, the IATP report fails to recognize basic scientific facts regarding mercury; ignores common dietary sources of mercury, an element that is widely present in our environment at low concentrations; and makes improper assumptions regarding the source of the mercury measured in various branded food products.