High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — labelled glucose-fructose or isoglucose in much of the world — is a clear, water-thin liquid sweetener made by breaking cornstarch down into glucose and then using an enzyme to rearrange part of that glucose into fructose. Cheap, endlessly pumpable and about as sweet as table sugar, it became the dominant sweetener of the American processed-food and soft-drink industries in the late twentieth century, and today it sweetens the vast majority of packaged sodas, candies, sauces and baked goods on supermarket shelves.