Corn From Field To Plate, And Everywhere In-Between
By: Sophie Nielsen-Kolding WMBD/WYZZ TV
Updated: August 31, 2012
PEORIA- Corn is harvested from the field, and picked up in the vegetable isle, but that is just on out of many, many stops the grain makes.
Ashley Simper is a dietician at OSF ST. Francis Medical Center, she says there are many ways for corn to end up on a plate.
"You know, pasta sauces, ketchups, that's where the high fructose corn syrup comes in," Simper said.
Simper said corn is broken down and put in anything from taco shells to soda.
"Corn starch is used mainly kind of as a filler or a binder, sometimes it coats some foods like frozen vegetables to keep it from sticking," she said.
Tricia Braid from the Illinois Corn Growers Association says it's even in the medicine isle.
"The coatings on something like aspirin and other pills that we might take are derived from corn based ingredients that helps it go down easier," Braid said.
Corn starch binds the pill together, corn could be in the plastic bottle that holds them and the adhesive that makes the label stick. Corn syrup even makes your cough medicine taste better. It's also in the baby isle, making diapers more absorbent.
"But in one package of diapers I would say that there's less than a handful of corn for sure to make these diapers do what they do," Braid said.
That's why you wont notice much of a price change in other things if corn gets more expensive; it's used in such small amounts.
"More of the price of items has to do with the fuel it took to get that product to the store, the energy it took to make that product and the marketing that's wrapped into the box that you actually pick up," Braid said.
Braid said only about seven percent of corn crop in the U.S. ends up in food and industrial products.
It's one crop, but it's in almost every isle of the grocery store.
Ashley Simper is a dietician at OSF ST. Francis Medical Center, she says there are many ways for corn to end up on a plate.
"You know, pasta sauces, ketchups, that's where the high fructose corn syrup comes in," Simper said.
Simper said corn is broken down and put in anything from taco shells to soda.
"Corn starch is used mainly kind of as a filler or a binder, sometimes it coats some foods like frozen vegetables to keep it from sticking," she said.
Tricia Braid from the Illinois Corn Growers Association says it's even in the medicine isle.
"The coatings on something like aspirin and other pills that we might take are derived from corn based ingredients that helps it go down easier," Braid said.
Corn starch binds the pill together, corn could be in the plastic bottle that holds them and the adhesive that makes the label stick. Corn syrup even makes your cough medicine taste better. It's also in the baby isle, making diapers more absorbent.
"But in one package of diapers I would say that there's less than a handful of corn for sure to make these diapers do what they do," Braid said.
That's why you wont notice much of a price change in other things if corn gets more expensive; it's used in such small amounts.
"More of the price of items has to do with the fuel it took to get that product to the store, the energy it took to make that product and the marketing that's wrapped into the box that you actually pick up," Braid said.
Braid said only about seven percent of corn crop in the U.S. ends up in food and industrial products.
It's one crop, but it's in almost every isle of the grocery store.
