Sweeteners Used by the Beverage Industry: Their Competitive Position in the United States

Excerpts from the report Summary: The beverage industry (soft drinks, malt, malt liquors, distilled liquors, flavorings) used 13.5 percent of all the sugar consumed in the United States and one-fourth of that delivered to industrial users in the United States in 1961. This was more than was delivered to any other industry. Beverage producers also used relatively small amounts of dextrose and corn sirup and increasing amounts of noncaloric sweeteners. Manufacturers of soft drinks are the largest users of sugar, followed by the producers of flavorings. However, soft drink manufacturers are the largest customers of the flavoring industry so that much of the sugar delivered to the flavoring industry reaches consumers in the form of a soft drink. Most of the corn sirup and dextrose delivered to the beverage industry is used as part of the fermentation material in the production of beer. The consumption of sugar by the beverage industry has been increasing since 1952 at a rate of about 49,000 tons per year. Deliveries of corn, sirup have increased about 3,200 tons per year, while those for dextrose declined from 1952 to 1959 and then increased to about the 1952 level. The percentage rate of increase in the use of corn sirup was more than twice that for sugar, but, the total quantity delivered in 1961 was less than 4 percent of the quantity of sugar delivered.