Americans each consumed 66 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup in 1999. How many pounds a year do they consume now?

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High-fructose corn syrup peaked at 66 pounds per person in 1999 and is down to 36 today. Nearly all of it goes into sweetened drinks, soda above all. Americans drink less soda than they did at that peak, and the ones still drinking it often reach for a zero-sugar can, which contains no corn syrup.

Americans each consumed 66 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup a year in 1999. Today it's 36.

Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Sugar and Sweeteners Yearbook Tables · checked Jul 2026