Why is there HFCS in my chopped garlic?

I’ve gradually been trying to get better about label reading and the food I’m buying. Last month, for instance, I clipped Musselman’s applesauce coupons with the intention of stocking up during a sale at Pete’s Market. Every kind they carried listed HFCS as the second ingredient. (And if that wasn’t enough corn syrupy goodness for you in one little cup, the third ingredient is plain old corn syrup.) Now, I’ve made applesauce before, and see no compelling reason for that to be in there. I didn’t buy them, and the poor deprived children have been living applesauce cup-less ever since.

At least applesauce is supposed to be sweet… This is kind of a moot point for those of us in Chicagoland now, but here’s some salsa verde I picked up during the Dominick’s going out of business sales. I do miss Dominick’s quite a bit, but now that I’ve read the label, I wouldn’t have purchased Safeway salsa again. Who wants corn syrup in … salsa?! Corn syrup is for baking with occasionally, not for use in something that’s supposed to be spicy — and the salsa does have kind of a weirdly sweet undertone.

This one’s the kicker. Here’s a big jar of “chopped garlic in water” I’ve been using, where I never looked at the ingredients before because it’s… chopped garlic in water. But what did I just notice last night? Yeah. High. Fructose. Corn. Syrup. In my garlic! I have a little backup jar of Goya minced garlic in the cabinet, so just pulled that out to check: Garlic, water, phosphoric acid. (I looked that up, and the phosphoric acid in the Goya and the citric acid in the Castella are both antimicrobial agents.)

I know to look for HFCS in things like ketchup, which run on the sweeter side. It never would have occurred to me to look for it in garlic. Yes, we do still eat processed foods in this house (heck, I had some Golden Grahams this morning, shh) — but somewhat less than we have in the past, and the more I read about HFCS the more I’m annoyed about it being shoved into more and more products where it doesn’t belong.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found HFCS in?