Americans’ consumption of corn syrup has fallen to a 20-year low on consumer concerns that it is more harmful or more likely to cause obesity than ordinary sugar, perceptions for which there is little scientific evidence.

However, some scientists have linked consumption of full-calorie soda - the vast majority of which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup - to obesity.

The Food and Drug Administration could take two years to decide on the name, but that’s not stopping the industry from using the term now in advertising.

There’s a new online marketing campaign at http://www.cornsugar.com and on television. Two new commercials try to alleviate shopper confusion, showing people who say they now understand that ‘whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.’

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Renaming products has succeeded before. For example, low eurcic acid rapeseed oil became much more popular after becoming ‘canola oil’ in 1988. Prunes tried to shed a stodgy image by becoming ‘dried plums’ in 2000.

The new name would help people understand the sweetener, said Audrae Erickson, president of the Washington-based group.

‘It has been highly disparaged and highly misunderstood,’ she said. She declined to say how much the campaign costs.

Sugar and high […]